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Chair of War Studies

LS-Team Militärgeschichte (v.l.n.r.): Fr. Dr. Pschichholz, Fr. Woywod, Fr. Freitag-Krenn, Hr. Prof. Dr. Neitzel, Hr. Dr.scianna, Fr. Schöttler, Hr. Dr. Rieck, Hr. Dr. Kay
Photo: Kai Bublitz

News

Prof Dr M. Fenn and 4 graduates with their degree certificate
Photo: Sarah Schöttler
16.10.2023: Farewell to the 2023 graduates

Welcome Ceremony for Incoming Students and Farewell of Graduates 2023

On October 16, the Chair of War Studies celebrated its annual welcome ceremony to usher in the new academic year. As in the years before, we welcomed the incoming cohorts at the University of Potsdam, bade farewell to our graduates, and awarded prizes and scholarships.

In the Master’s degree programs “War and Conflict Studies” (WCS) and “International War Studies” (IWS) the Chair was able to welcome a total of 35 incoming students and say goodbye to another 35 graduates. Prof Dr Sönke Neitzel congratulated the incoming students on their decision to come up to Potsdam and the graduates on their successful completion of their studies. The Dean of Studies of the Faculty of Arts, Prof Dr Monika Fenn, read out the graduate certificates of the graduates who were present during the ceremony.

The Association of Friends of the Chair of War Studies was able to award two merit scholarships of 7,000 EUR each for excellent students of IWS: Ms Penelope Wessel from Germany as well as Mr Stephen Crowley from Ireland have passed their first year of study of the double degree with flying colors, and traveled back to University College Dublin after the ceremony where they are spending their second year of study. In collaboration with the Kinderstiftung Kreuzberg the Chair was happy to broker a social scholarship that represents a big help for the student in question in securing the funding for her tuition. Thank you very much.

This year, the prize for best graduate of the past year went to Ms Sarah Westvik (IWS), who graduated with the greatest success and with the best possible grade. In her moving speech she took us from her first academic experiences in Singapore to her graduate studies in Dublin and thanked her student peers as well as the lecturers who guided her. Ms Westvik had already won a merit scholarship for IWS the year before. We congratulate her on this great achievement!

The evening ended with pretzels and red wine on the magnificent terrace of the Philosophicum, where students, lecturers and guests could again engage in informal chats. As every year the Association of Friends of the Chair of War Studies deserves our heartfelt gratitude – for the support of this event, as also for the funding of the prize for best student and both merit scholarships. Through this support, the Association of Friends contributes greatly to the success of both MA programs run by the Chair.

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Many people in conversation on the terrace of house 11 NP
Photo: Sarah Schöttler
16.10.2023: social get-together after the official part of the semester kick-off celebration
Professor Sönke Neitzel steht neben Dr. Bastian Matteo Scianna, beide mit Blumensträußen in der Hand
Photo: PhilFak
19.07.2023: Auf dem Fakultätsfest der erhielt Prof. Sönke Neitzel den Lehrpreis der Philosophischen Fakultät und Dr. Bastian Matteo Scianna die Urkunde seiner Habilitation über "Europa ohne Grenzen. Die Entstehung eines europäischen Mobilitätsregimes von der Nachkriegszeit bis zum Schengen Abkommen".

about the professorship

The Chair of War Studies is the only one of its kind in Germany. It is dedicated to military history and to the cultural history of violence, and is a central venue of liaison between the university and other research institutions investigating military history, between different methodical approaches within this varied discipline, as well as for the transfer of academic knowledge at both a national and international level. We seek to contribute to making Potsdam, with its history and its orientation towards to the future, more visible internationally as a centre of interdisciplinary war studies.

The Chair addresses military history and the cultural history of violence from the Early Modern Period to the present. It examines the foundations, dynamics and consequences of violent conflicts on the national and international stage. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches, the Chair analyses how state, society and armed forces interact with one another. Its principal research focus is the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Located at the Chair, moreover, are two study programmes at Master level that are unique in Germany.FAQ Both are interdisciplinary, international and practice-orientated: The MA in War and Conflict Studies is a single degree at the University of Potsdam, in which predominantly German and European students research violent phenomena in the past and the present in small groups. The MA in International War Studies is a double degree programme with University College Dublin, which offers students the possibility of forming networks in the Anglo-Saxon world of war studies and which is aimed above all at an international audience.

Both study programmes combine the ambition to explore the subject of war and conflict in the past and the present from a multitude of different professional and national perspectives. Alongside concrete armed conflicts, the interactions between war and violence, security and stability, conflict and development are hereby illuminated. Our range of courses therefore offers a broad selection from history, political science, sociology and international law: from Clausewitz to cyber wars.

The work of the Chair profits enormously from a variety of partners located both in Potsdam itself and in nearby Berlin. Among the most important academic partners are the Centre for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr (ZMSBw), the Federal Archives and the Federal Military Archives. Good working relations exist with the Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS), as well as the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and the Bundeswehr’s own consulting agency. Think tanks, political foundations and the Berlin-based media actively support us with teaching events and internships. An exceptional relationship continues to exist with the Federal Ministry of Defence, but also with the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, which approach the subject of war and conflict from very different perspectives.

The Chair’s online presence is designed to illustrate the entire thematic diversity of the work of the Chair described above. If you are interested in any aspect of our work, do not hesitate to contact us.

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Photo: Christian E. Rieck