We are back from the summer break…

... with plenty of fresh ideas! Fall weather welcomes us back on the Campus Charlottenburg after a few weeks of summer and online break. Some of us used the past weeks for well-deserved vacation, some attended (inter-)national conferences, others wrapped up the project “Rethinking Prototyping”, or cleaned up the Hybrid Lab after several events and workshops that took place in our lab during the last semester.

I was lucky and could participate in the so called “Td summer school”, organized by the Leuphana University of Lüneburg in cooperation with Arizona State University. First of all it was a very interesting surrounding, working on a small campus (in comparison to the large Campus Charlottenburg), which had served as army barracks prior to its academic life, facing the construction side of the university's new main building designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. Not to mention the attractive city to tourists we explored one afternoon: the “Hanseatic city” Lüneburg lies in northern Germany southeast from Hamburg with a beautiful old town and an omnipresent historical legacy of its salt production. And during the evening, we discovered Niklas Luhmann’s pub (and former brewery of his father) in his parents’ house – who would have thought that?

The summer school provided both, theoretical and methodological foundations as well as experiences in designing and implementing transdisciplinary research processes. A diverse and international group of 20 people (with residents of Australia, Kenya, South Africa, just to mention a few places from far away) came together to exchange on their research experience and to learn more about transdisciplinary approaches in research activities. Hearing about the other participants’ and lecturers’ experience and perspectives was indeed very stimulating. Divided up in sub groups, we conducted case studies and tried out diverse methods in implementing transdisciplinary projects. All I can say is that our sub group, entitled “The plastic fishers”, was just pure fun and working so closely for a couple of days was definitely enriching.

The exchange with other experts on managing transdisciplinary research generated some ideas for the coordination of future group processes. Certainly I can take with me some inspiring insights of dos and don’ts! And another concrete result is our continuous work on “The plastic fishers” – which might turn into a Hybrid project? You never know...

– Julia