The Department of Science Communication and Higher Education Research, founded in 2007, focuses on the societal aspects of the science sector. Its central themes include the interplay and boundaries between the various cultures and approaches found in the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences; the societal importance of universities as research and educational institutions; and media-based communication of scientific knowledge. The Department bases its work especially on research findings generated by the social sciences and humanities. It thus fosters interdisciplinary dialogue between different social scientific and humanistic perspectives.

RESEARCH PRIORITIES 

The Department focuses on the social, cultural and political relationships between a) the sciences and higher education institutions and b) other realms of society, especially in the following three thematic areas:

Science as culture and practice  

Historical and contemporary analyses of various scientific cultures, with regard to their epistemic strategies, social forms, and symbolic representations.

Knowledge: Discourses and  narratives about knowledge, and visual representations of knowledge

Analyses of the many ways in which knowledge is represented and publicly appropriated, including theoretical discourses, narrations, images, models and museum exhibitions. 

Higher education institutions in the knowledge society

The economic, social, and political frameworks for teaching and research at tertiary education institutions, at both the national and international levels.

In addition to carrying out their research and teaching, the Department's staff also prepare media-based public presentations of scientific findings (such as exhibitions and documentaries) and serve as consulting experts for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects.

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