College of Fellows

Events

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Lectures and Lecture Series

CoF Cinema with Yulia Lokshina

Active Vocabulary 

January 16, 2026 | 6.30 pm Villa Köstlin

Yulia Lokshina’s film “Active Vocabulary” was awarded the Golden Dove for Best Film in the German Competition at DOK Leipzig, a documentary film festival, in October 2025. On October 28, Deutschlandfunk Kultur conducted an interview with Yulia Lokshina, which can be found here.

Abstract


Balancing through archival material, found footage, 3D animations and a documentary reenactment, film approaches the institution of school as a vehicle for the expansion of the Russian state, both militarily on the outside and ideologically on the inside. Teachers and pupils start observing each other, secret audio recordings of conversations emerge online. Shortly after the invasion, a young Russian teacher speaks out against the war. She is secretly recorded and denounced by a pupil. She flees to Berlin, where a German school class re-enacts her case and tries to understand how this betrayal came about. The film follows these events to reflect on processes of political overwhelming and the conditions of resistance. 

 
Bio


Yulia Lokshina was born 16.07.86 in Moscow, Russia, moved to Germany in 1999. Lives and works between Berlin and Munich. In her work, she deals with communities, the organization of social coexistence, non-fictional narrative forms, migrations, ideologies, social and political dependencies. Her films and video works have been shown and awarded at various national and international festivals and art venues. She works in the border area of film and research, in filmmaking, writing and teaching, as well as in open formations with artist friends.

CoF Cinema - Filmscreening and discussion

"Hölderlin und der heilige Fluss" with the director Dr. Fabien Jégoudez 

December 16, 2025 | 6.30 pm   Villa Köstlin | Common Room

„Hölderlin und der heilige Fluss“ ist ein poetischer Dokumentarfilm. Der Film bietet eine Galerie von Impressionen der schwäbischen Landschaft, der Hölderlin besonders innig verbunden war. Wir nähern uns dem, was Hölderlin gesehen haben dürfte und woraus seine schöpferische Leidenschaft entsprang. Narratives Biopic, poetische Texte und philosophische Überlegungen begleiten uns entlang der drei bedeutendsten Lebensorte des Dichters an den Ufern des Neckars. Die Ergriffenheit angesichts der Natur ist in jedem Moment spürbar. Wir wandeln auf den Spuren Hölderlins, indem wir dem Fluss in Richtung seiner Quelle folgen und werfen dabei einen tiefen Blick ins Herz des Lebens und des Werkes des Dichters. Bedeutende Kenner seines Werks erhellen uns über das Verhältnis zum Fluss, zur Natur, sowie das Leben und das Denken und Dichten Hölderlins. 
Mit: Eva Ehrenfeld, Johann Kreuzer, Florian Mittelhammer, Daniela Übelhör, Klaus-Peter Waldenberger, Melina Wießler. Stimmen: Jochen Hägele, Elke Angelika Wachendorff.

Im Anschluss an die Vorführung des 80-minütigen Films besteht Gelegenheit zur Diskussion mit dem Regisseur des Films, dem Philosophen Dr. Fabien Jégoudez (assoziierter Forscher am CNRS, Paris). 

 

 

Focus Group Events

An overview of all Focus Groups can be found here. 

New Horizons Workshop

“Non-Linguistic vs. Linguistic Cognition Within the Architecture of the Mind” with Prof. Günther Knoblich 

December 10, 2025 | 9 am - 4 pm   Villa Köstlin 

About: In this informal workshop, we will explore perspectives on how we can meaningfully distinguish between linguistic and non-linguistic cognition. A central question is whether certain cognitive functions may include both language-bound and language-independent components. Our aim is to create an open and friendly atmosphere that encourages discussion and idea sharing. Rather than showcasing completed research programs, the workshop will feature talks that present novel or developing ideas. Through this exchange, we hope to identify useful starting points for thinking about the interplay between linguistic and non-linguistic cognition

Please find the schedule here.

New Horizons Workshop

Historiographies of Christianity in China
– A Symposium of Current Voices in the Field

December 12–13, 2025 | Villa Köstlin (Rümelinstr. 27), Seminar Room | Zoom

Organized by New Horizons Fellow Prof. Naomi Thurston

About
This workshop seeks to bring together and discuss diverse current and emerging approaches in the study of Chinese Christianities employed by scholars based in different parts of the world and working in various disciplines, whether in historical, theological, literary, sociological, or religious studies. The Workshop is jointly organized by the CoF, the Faculty of Protestant Theology; University of Tübingen, the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK); the Center for Christian Studies, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, CUHK; and the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, Hong Kong; and promoted by the China Christianity Studies Group (CCSG). 

You are cordially invited to join in presence or online:

To help us with our planning, please register at infospam prevention@cof.uni-tuebingen.de  (you can also request the Zoom link at this address) – thank you!

Please find more information here.

College of Fellows Lecture Series

The College of Fellows Lecture Series invites international fellows and Tübingen academics to present their research and network. Every month, fellows and international guest researchers from the University of Tübingen present their research findings. If you are interested, please contact infospam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de 

CoF Lecture mit Prof. Leonardo Kerber

“Welcome to Triassic Park: Old Brazilian Fossils, New Stories”

 January 14, 2026 | 6.30 pm   Villa Köstlin

Researchers at the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil (Centro de Apoio à Pesquisa Paleontológica) have recently unveiled remarkable discoveries of Triassic vertebrates from southern Brazil. These fossils, including early relatives of mammals and reptiles, shed new light on the evolution of ancient ecosystems that thrived between 240 and 225 million years ago. By combining fieldwork with cutting-edge digital imaging and 3D reconstruction, CAPPA researchers are revealing new species and anatomical details that are reshaping our understanding of the Triassic world.

Bio

Leonardo Kerber is a vertebrate paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Brazil. He studies fossil vertebrates, using CT scanning and 3D analysis to investigate the anatomy, evolution, and paleobiology of non-mammaliaform cynodonts and other Triassic animals.

Fellow Life Events

International Workshop by Dr. Sergio Pérez-Gatica

Systemic Harm and Collective (Un)Awareness. 
Forms of Agency and the Diffusion of Responsibility in Structural Violence.
Insights from Phenomenology, Violence Studies, and Liberation Philosophy

January 29-30, 2026 Villa Köstlin | Rümelinstraße 27

 

Abstract

Systemic harm often transcends the boundaries of deliberate action, unfolding instead through bureaucratic and structural dynamics that elude traditional notions of responsibility and individual accountability. From social injustice (e.g. housing discrimination, gender inequality, racialized policing, etc.) to predatory economics to environmental devastation, structural harm often arises without clearly identifiable agents directly causing it (or directly seeing themselves as the cause of it)— and yet it remains deeply entangled with social practices, group habits, and institutions whose preservation, transformation, or abolition presupposes multiple forms of agency: free and forced, habitual and deliberative, individual and collective. 
Ever since the Norwegian sociologist and peace researcher Johan Galtung coined the term “structural violence” in the late 1960s, it has been common to assume that such violence is characterized by an absence of intentionality. Recent sociological and philosophical studies have challenged this assumption, sometimes suggesting that the concept of structural violence has been poorly theorized, is essentially flawed, and should be dismissed. From a phenomenological perspective, however, while the idea of violence ‘without subject’ must be questioned, the need for conceptual tools to describe forms of systemic harm caused by collective human agency remains essential. 
This workshop invites critical reflection on the ambiguous spaces between shared responsibility, individual accountability, and different forms of collective agency in cases of harm caused in systemic ways. How can we make sense of accountability and complicity when violence is embedded in the very structures that shape social life? Can resistance and liberation emerge from within these same structures? And what resources do phenomenology, liberation philosophy, and violence studies offer for rethinking ethical response in contexts where agency is obscured or indirect? Can subjects be complicit of their own (or others’) oppression without being accountable—or accountable without full-blooded agency? In what ways does interdisciplinary violence research provide conceptual resources for rethinking these tensions? 

CoF Lunch Talks

The CoF Lunch Talk Series invites international fellows and Tübingen researchers to exchange ideas in a relaxed atmosphere during the lunch break. Each month, a fellow presents his or her research. The CoF Lunch Talks take place in the Villa Köstlin. 

The CoF Lunch Talks in the winter term 2025/26 can be found here.