News (2)

The latest version of OpenQDA has been released. Users can now add and manage variables for their project materials (sources). This lays the groundwork for the upcoming implementation of cases and sets.

Since July 2026, Ananth Shreyas is a Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of Religion and Related Didactics at the University of Bremen, working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler within the ZeMKI Media and Religion Lab.

How can media outlets, universities, companies, and public institutions reduce their dependence on the major platform corporations? ZeMKI member Dr. Leif Kramp, together with co-author Dr. Stephan Weichert from the VOCER Institute for Digital Resilience, addresses this question in an op-ed for the taz.

Emilija Gagrčin (ZeMKI, GLaMS Lab) contributed to the 13th FILE – Forum on Intercultural Learning and Exchange, held by Fondazione Intercultura in Colle di Val d'Elsa on 13–15 November 2025 under the theme "Encouraging Value-Based Behaviors: From Pupils' Mobility to Civic Engagement."

The gamevironments Special Issue "Beyond Play" is out now! It features eight articles covering genre, neurodivergence, feminist gaming culture, streaming, YouTube videos, and digital diplomacy—reimagining gaming. Highlights include an introduction titled "Beyond Play: Towards a Non-Gaming-Centric Gaming Research" by ZeMKI members Christian Schwarzenegger, Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, and Karsten D. Wolf.

The Gamevironments Research Day is a workshop exclusively for early-stage researchers, graduate students and doctoral students. It welcomes research on media-centered approaches, perspectives of game developers and publishers, and viewpoints of gamers. The workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to engage in discussions and debates about theoretical approaches for studying the intersection of religion, culture, and video gaming.

ZeMKI member Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter discusses the risks, but also the opportunities that AI systems can offer in the classroom in an interview with Lisa Duncan of the Weser-Kurier.

On 24 JulyZeMKI member Dr. Rieke Böhling and Dr. Berber Hagedoorn (University of Groningen, Netherlands) facilitate a workshop on the Dutch North Sea island Schiermonnikoog. The workshop is funded by a seed grant of the Hanse University Alliance and is organized in cooperation with the local cultural history association ’t Heer en Feer. 

ZeMKI member Kerstin Radde-Antweiler has joined the advisory board of the Center for Critical Education on Antisemitism (CCEA). Since 2021, the CCEA has been conducting research and teaching within the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, focusing on how antisemitism is addressed in universities, schools, and non-formal educational settings.

ZeMKI member Kerstin Radde-Antweiler was involved in creating a dataset in which LLMs were tasked with answering a religious question from the perspective of one of twelve theological personas (six Christian and six Muslim).

On the afternoon of 8 July 2026, members of ZeMKI gathered at Linzer Straße 4 for the ZeMKI Research Day 2026. This internal event format provides a forum for presenting ongoing projects from the eleven ZeMKI Labs, discussing methodological issues and bringing together perspectives across the boundaries of the individual Labs.

On 8 July 2026, the ZeMKI Research Day at the Linzer Straße 4 site segued directly into the ZeMKI Summer Party. Following the day’s academic programme, the discussions moved outdoors and continued there in an informal setting.