Summer School - Courses Overview
Courses of the 2026 Summer School of Global and Transnational Sociology
All seminars run for two weeks, Monday to Thursday, 10am to 2pm. In each block, only one seminar can therefore be chosen.
Block 1
June 22nd to July 3rd, 2026 on site in Duisburg, two online sessions before and after mobility tbc.
Seminar 1: Anti-Systemic and Autonomous Movements (Lecturer: Prof. Peyman Vahabzadeh, University of Victoria, Canada)
This course offers, in relative depth, descriptions and analyses anti-systemic movements: autonomous movements that have (tried to) break away with the state-system and capitalism. All states—regardless of their ideological underpinnings—are founded on violence and continue to function based on violent proceduralisms that are justified through the hegemonic construction of citizens. The violence of capitalism, which continues to destroy all life on earth—human and nonhuman—has reached its pinnacle with no prospect of declining. This course shows how some movements have broken away with the violent civilizational frameworks of our contemporary age. These autonomous movements enact participatory democracy and egalitarian social systems. The course offers several contemporary case study of autonomous movements that may hold a view of the future of humanity. The course entails descriptive accounts of these movements that are enriched by theoretical perspectives.
Seminar 2: Sociology of Migration: Regional migration within the Middle East and the establishment of a global Arab diaspora (Lecturer: Dr. Johannes Becker)
This course serves as an introduction to the sociology of migration by focusing on mobilities in, or originating from, a specific regional context. We will discuss basic concepts and central debates in the sociology of migration and connect them to historical aspects and contemporary phenomena of migration in relation to the Middle East, from the late Ottoman Empire and colonial rule up to today’s independent states. In addition to characterizing mobility within the region, we will analyze how migrations from the Middle East to other world regions, from the second half of the 19th century until the present, have resulted in an interconnected transregional/transnational global Arab diaspora, for example in the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
Block 2
July 6th to July 17th, 2026, two online sessions before and after mobility tbc.
Seminar 1: Migration and integration across the life course (Lecturer: Dr. Lisa Mansfeld)
For migrants, moving not only means leaving familiar contexts behind but also arriving in a new and often challenging environment. This process involves crossing more than just geographical borders—migration unfolds within and between social spaces, reshaping relationships, identities, and opportunities along the way.
This seminar approaches migration as both a decision and considering its diverse consequences. It asks how and why people migrate: which structural, economic, and personal factors drive migration decisions, and how these choices are shaped by life circumstances, family situations, and gender roles. For example, to what extent are children involved in family migration decision-making? And, considering couples’ migration: which role does gender play? At the same time, the course looks beyond the moment of arrival. How do integration processes manifest over different stages of life—from childhood and youth to adulthood and old age? What role does age at arrival play, and how does a sense of belonging change throughout an individual’s life?
Seminar 2: Power in the Anthropocene: Transnational Climate Governance (Lecturer: Dr. Ceren Cevik)
Climate change and ecological degradation are challenges that no single state can solve alone; they require forms of cooperation that reach across borders and sectors. In this course, we will examine the roles of international organizations, states, NGOs, corporations, and multi-stake holder initiatives in shaping responses to climate change, biodiversity loss, and other environmental issues. We will focus on the rise of private and hybrid governance, the strategies of transnational environmental NGOs, and the political dynamics of cooperation and contestation in global environmental policymaking. This seminar asks how does transnational environmental governance work? Which actors are involved in decision-making processes, and which are excluded from it? How do power asymmetries -between Global North and South, states and corporations, or large and small NGOs- shape environmental outcomes? Who bears the costs and who receives the benefits of global environmental governance?
