We did it! After two weeks, we successfully completed the workshop! Photo: private
Prof. Dr. Stefan Selke of Furtwangen University lectured in Brazil in February – why was that? We checked with him.
Professor Selke, why were you teaching in Rio de Janeiro in February instead of Furtwangen?
Quite simply because it was the semester break at HFU! That's why a two-and-a-half-week full-time workshop on “Public Science” at our partner university Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC) in Rio de Janeiro was possible.
How did this come about?
Last year, I was invited to give a lecture on social science perspectives on artificial intelligence at the PUC, which was well received. In a follow-up discussion with the faculty management, we looked for further topics for a longer-term collaboration. “Public science”, my main topic, was an obvious choice. On the one hand, because this has been the content of my research professorship since 2015, and on the other because social sciences in Brazil traditionally have a greater public and transfer orientation. The “third mission” - i.e. the social responsibility of universities towards society − has always been practiced actively and in many different ways in Brazil. Nevertheless, there is a lack of experts who have the right background in scientific theory to support this practice. This gave rise to the idea for a workshop that encompasses both the practical and theoretical dimensions of “public science” and builds on my more than twenty years of experience with public science.
Why Brazil of all places?
I have a long relationship with Brazil. I lived with a Brazilian family in Bauru (São Paulo) for a while in the 1990s. I also studied Portuguese literature alongside sociology. Since then, I have been fascinated by the country, its people, culture and, above all, the language.
I am also currently researching the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and his social utopia. His story is frighteningly topical. Zweig was Jewish and fled from the Nazis as early as 1934, first to England, then to the USA. But it was only in Brazil that he was finally granted permanent residency. He rented a house in Petrópolis, a small town in the mountains near Rio. Desperate about what was happening in Europe, he finally ended his life out of “Weltschmerz” shortly after his 60th birthday. I am currently writing a book on the subject of exile. So it made sense to do some research on site. In addition, a unique exhibition on Stefan Zweig is currently coming to an end in Rio. Incidentally, my students were extremely interested in Zweig's story. I was able to use this detour to teach them a lot about present-day Europe and the current political changes.
Back to the workshop - are there any differences between HFU and the PUC or the students at both universities?
The PUC is a university with a wide range of courses, including “Social Sciences and Humanities”, and the two universities cannot really be compared. That's why I'd rather talk about the students, because they were unique! Around a dozen students from various disciplines (sociology, political science, anthropology, public policy, design) took part in my workshop. The diversity of the group was immediately apparent in the choice of topics for the student presentations: A trans person dealt with the perception of this group of people in Brazil. And against a very serious background, as her partner had been murdered just a year earlier! A student who is a single mother reported on her commitment to women's rights. Another student had to commute two hours each morning and evening to get from her home to my seminar. Logically, she was concerned with improving urban mobility. There were incredibly diverse and authentic topics ranging from the public co-production of creativity to the role of teachers in teaching sociological content.
I was more than amazed by the dedication and commitment of the students. From the very first moment, everyone worked with me in an incredibly serious manner. I have never experienced this mixture of curiosity and determination anywhere else. At the end, the group presented me with a book that had been individually signed by everyone.
Does this also have to do with the practical project that you carried out with the students?
Exactly! I had a spontaneous idea for a special project. And the students were really enthusiastic...
What kind of project was it?
The project is an attempt to find your own voice. Nothing is more important if you want to do public science. Because it's always about reaching people beyond science. This requires forms of communication that can be connected. And your own voice is much more likely to be heard than a random echo. This is exactly why I came up with the “Be a voice, not an echo!” project.
And what exactly did you do with the students as part of this project?
Together we produced individual vinyl singles. Each of these singles contains a message on a socially relevant future topic. I have already described how the students dealt with serious issues. On this basis, we developed messages together, all of which are aimed at a public audience. The next step was to record these messages in two languages as an audio file. Together with cooperating artists from the Viennese project VINYLOGRAPH, a single was then produced for each student following the workshop. For technical reasons, each message had a maximum length of 4:30 min. This is didactically effective, as the time limit forces a clear thematic focus. But that's not all! Each single is produced in duplicate. The students receive a personal single as a souvenir. I'm collecting the second single for my “Archive of Future Euphoria”, which I'm currently building up. This involves collecting and curating messages on singles. In the end, there will also be a public exhibition.
Apart from teaching, was there a particular highlight?
As I said, the collaboration with the students was extremely dynamic and fruitful. We were able to build trust with each other very quickly. This also led to a student who lives in the nearby favela of Rocinha inviting us to take a tour and visit her home. Right next to the luxurious hotel complexes on Ipanema and Leblon beach, around 75,000 people live in houses that have been built illegally and adventurously on the hillside. Rio is the city in Brazil with the largest proportion of these “slums”. However, hardly any Brazilians know these favelas from their own eyes, at most from television. Of course, as a sociologist, I was delighted to have such an opportunity! This excursion was enormously enriching for all of us.
What inspiration will you take home with you?
I'm now really looking forward to meeting my curious students in Furtwangen and I very much hope that I can inspire them with this concept too. I am glad that the experiment in Brazil was a success. First of all, the fact that the workshop was offered in a cross-faculty context was positive. We can certainly implement such a concept more often at HFU. I will adapt the workshop and the project “Be a voice and not an echo!” and offer it at HFU and other locations. It has enormous potential, because students learn to argue authentically and in a socially relevant way on several levels at the same time. This experience has clearly encouraged me to offer more content on “public science”, as the overall acceptance and response has been more than positive. I'm very excited to see what will develop from this.
