College of Fellows

COLLEGE OF FELLOWS
Center for Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Studies

The College of Fellows is the Tübingen model of a university-based Institute for Advanced Studies. It is addressed to all international postdocs and research fellows at the University of Tübingen. As a platform for research, networking and events, the CoF invites all university members to actively participate in shaping the international and interdisciplinary exchange within the university and with the public.
More Information about the College of Fellows

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Announcements

All Upcoming Events

June 24 | New Horizons Workshop | Professor Günther Knoblich | Linguistic vs. Non-Linguistic Cognition: Developmental and Comparative Perspectives | Villa Köstlin, Seminar Room

June 24 | CoF Lecture | Professor Maria Dakake |“Religion and Religions in Muslim Thought: Potential Contributions to Religious Studies Theory in the West”  

June 30 | Public Lecture | Professor Rita Segato | “The Elementary Structures of Violence. Gender Relations Between Anthropology, Psychoanalysis and Human Rights”

News

SSRC Graduate Research Fellowship for CoF Fellow Wendy He

Wendy He, an interdisciplinary scholar of international relations, has been awarded the Singapore Social Science Research Council Graduate Research Fellowship and is currently based at the University of Tübingen as a Global Encounters Fellow. Her research project examines how trust and leadership decision-making shape the course of climate negotiations, developing a psychological framework centered on the so-called "Confidence Trap" — the errors that arise from over- or undercalibrated confidence in diplomacy. Drawing on case studies of major climate conferences such as Copenhagen, Paris, and Glasgow, she analyzes how calibrated decision-making and trust dynamics can enable sustained international cooperation. The University of Tübingen is the first German university to be selected as a host institution for this prestigious fellowship, underlining its strong international standing.

Semester Program

With a diverse programme and numerous opportunities for exchange, networking, and collaboration, we are looking forward to a new semester. Together with our long-term and short-term fellows, we have developed a series of events designed to foster both disciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue, creating space for the development of new ideas and academic partnerships.

We warmly invite you to take advantage of these offerings and become part of a vibrant academic community. Further information on our program can be found in the flyer for the Summer Semester 2026 — we look forward to welcoming you in person at one of our upcoming events.

Annual Report 2024

We are very excited to present our 2024 annual report to you. In it you will find interviews with some of the fellows who were with us last year in which they talk about their research and their time in Tübingen; you will also find reports on events and brief introductions to all of last year's visiting scholars. Our annual report is available for download. 

Publications

Porr, Martin und Weidtmann, Niels (Hrsg.): "One World Anthropology and Beyond. A Multidisciplinary Engagement with the Work of Tim Ingold" London: Routeledge.

This edited volume offers a multidisciplinary engagement with the work of Tim Ingold, one of the most influential anthropologists in recent decades. The contributions are drawn from fields such as social anthropology, archaeology, rock art studies, philosophy, and science and technology studies, and critically engage with Ingold’s approaches and ideas. The volume includes contributions from participants in the Masterclass "One World Anthropology" with Tim Ingold, hosted by the CIIS in September 2019.

Past Events

October 24, 2025

Semester Opening with Prof. Megan Fieser

“Strategies to Address the Circularity of Plastics,” the formal semester opening of the College of Fellows took place on October 24, 2025.
Professor Megan Fieser, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Southern California Dornsife, delivered an impressive and accessible lecture on the profound impact plastics have on all of our lives.

She highlighted the complexity of the challenges surrounding sustainability, recycling, and the durability of plastics, and presented the innovative solutions her research in inorganic chemistry offers to address these issues. Prof. Fieser emphasized that the future of plastics lies in the circular use of materials—through new chemical processes that make plastics not only recyclable, but also environmentally friendly and resource-efficient.

16 October 2024
New Horizons Workshop

"Action, Body, and Space"
On Wednesday, 16 October 2024, from 09:30 am.– 5pm, the New Horizons Workshop “Action, Body, and Space” took place at the Villa Köstlin (Rümelinstr. 27, Tübingen) with a keynote by New Horizons Fellow Professor Patrick Haggard titled "Is Space Motoric?" and with further lectures by an interdisciplinary group of Tübingen scientists. The programme can be found here.

9. – 11. May 2024: SIP Annual Conference

From 9 to 11 May 2024, the annual conference of the Society for Intercultural Philosophy (SIP) "Topoi, Places, and Spaces in an Intercultural Perspective" took place at the University of Tübingen and online via Zoom. The conference, organised by the Society for Intercultural Philosophy in cooperation with the University of Tübingen and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), featured keynote speakers such as Augustin Berque, Edward Casey, Nathalie Depraz, Tao DuFour, Workineh Kelbessa Golga, Anke Graness, Tim Ingold, Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, Kwok-ying Lau, Rita Segato, and Jaroslava Vydrová. The conference focused on the study and intercultural comparison of topoi, places, and spaces, emphasising their importance in intercultural philosophy and other disciplines. 

For more detailed information, please go to our events archive.