Winter Semester 2026/27 Bridge Seminars

Environmental and climate changes, including human-induced alterations, are major threats and challenges to past and modern societies. They exacerbate existing problems regarding resources, nutrition, urban agglomeration, health, social inequality, and may even trigger migration and conflict. Short-term events superimposing mid or long-term environmental changes have recurrently threatened the stability of human societies for centuries and millennia.

Hazards are in the widest sense any source of potential damage, harm or adverse effect on societies and/or on environments. Depending on the degree of exposure and the level of ecological and/or social resilience, sudden onset events or slow onset changes can be experienced as a hazard and, if the potential damage turns into real impact, end up in a societal or ecological disaster. Past hazards and impacts may potentially manifest in major socio-environmental reorganizations and/or arguably related to decay in connectivity.

Human strategies to cope with hazards can result in (1) “successful” adaptation (2) mitigation strategies, (3) avoidance reactions, or (4) in failure. 

Adopting an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar perspective, the seminar will explore natural hazards, human impact on the environment, potential coping strategies, and also the perception of hazards in past and modern societies, in the Mediterranean region.

Maximum number of participants: 20 (Ideal composition: 50% humanities, 50% natural sciences)
Course language: German and English
Registration deadline: 07.10.2026 (via Heico)

WEEKLY SESSIONS:

• Kick-off meeting at Marstallhof 4, Archaeology:
  Thu.,, 15.10.2026, 16:15 
   
• First seminar session: 
  Thu, 29.10.2026, 16:15 

Venue and Time:
The seminar takes place on a weekly alternating basis between the Archaeology and Geography locations.

• Archaeology: Marstallhof 4 (Kollegiengebäude), 4.OG, Room 2040.04
• Geography: Im Neuenheimer Feld, INF 348, 1.OG, Room 132
• every Thursday 16:15-17:45 
  
  

  Information & Registration via heiCO

  
  
   

Worldwide, the dramatic increase of agricultural production has caused a number of negative side effects such as extensive use of mono-cultures, plant diseases and widespread pesticide application, loss of biodiversity, excessive fertilizing and soil degradation. Climate change has added additional risks such as high temperature, extended drought periods but also excessive rainfall. The increasing digitization of agriculture has mixed effects: while it may reduce resource and fertilizer use, it primarily strengthens the power of larger agricultural producers that are able to invest in new technologies. Last-but-not-least, industrial agricultural practices and modes of land use have often resulted in various negative impacts on local human populations. While for human nutrition sufficient calorie intake is mandatory, the quality of plant food is a critical determinant for human health. Here, unhealthy life styles due to massive consumption of processed food have developed into a major health hazard. Although a change in agricultural production practices appears to be urgently needed, societal power relations are major obstacles for the required transformation. New digital developments, ranging from robotic systems in precision agriculture to digital farming practices that enable individual consumers to remotely manage the cultivation of their own plots, are transforming relations between environments, producers, and consumers. Using concrete case studies, this seminar explores the complex societal inter-dependencies behind the observed mal-development but also presents promising approaches to address some of the major challenges. 
Seminar schedule - The different aspects of the complex topic will be demonstrated by short presentations (max. length 25 min), followed by short discussion rounds. The afternoon of the second day will be dedicated to a general discussion with the goal to explore links between the different aspects 

SEMINAR DATES:

• Hybrid kick-off meeting:
  Tue., 3.11.2026, 14:00 - 15:00 
   
• Block courses:
  Mon., 18.1.2027, 9:00 - 17:00, Seminar room 1 (EG)
  Tue, 19.1.2027, 9:00 - 17:00, Seminar room 1 (EG)

Venue: 
Marsilius-Kolleg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 130.1

Coming soon: Information & registration via heiCO