Talks

MZH Room 1100

“A University for Everyone” – what does that mean for the University of Bremen? During the lecture, the anti-discrimination policy will be introduced through a video, and other anti-discrimination initiatives at the University of Bremen will also be discussed. The lecture includes a screening of the animated film (11 min) followed by a discussion.

Speaker: Anneliese Niehoff & Almut Dietrich

MZH Room 1460

Food is never just a side issue: In literature, theater, and film, meals are used to explore issues of identity, migration, power, and belonging. Who eats what, and with whom? Who goes hungry? What stories do food and its presentation tell about global interconnections? This short lecture provides an overview of the master’s degree program in Transnational Literary Studies. Using selected examples from literature, theater, and film, it introduces food as a subject of academic study and demonstrates how cultural productions can be analyzed across national and linguistic boundaries. Afterward, teaching staff members and students look forward to chatting with you – about the program, exciting examples, and anything else you have always wanted to know about literature, theater, film, or food.

Speaker: Teresa Cordero Villar

MZH Room 1470

From October 2019 to September 2020, the research icebreaker Polarstern spent a year drifting with the sea ice in the Arctic. The objective of the international MOSAiC expedition – under the leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute – is to better understand the Arctic climate system and to improve climate models. To this end, a heavily interdisciplinary measurement program is of great importance that covers the areas of atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, biology, and biogeochemistry. The focus of this lecture will be on satellite remote sensing of sea ice and the climate. For more than 40 years, satellite measurements have shown the drastic decrease in Arctic sea ice. The increase in temperature in the Arctic is three to four times as much as the global mean. This phenomenon – called “polar amplification” – is one of the currently most observed indicators of global climate change. There were clear signals of this change even during the year of the MOSAiC expedition. The above-average temperatures along the Russian coast resulted in the second-lowest sea ice extent ever recorded. The ice drift in the thinner, more easily deformable ice proceeded faster than expected. As a result, the research camp had to be moved further north toward the end of the expedition. In the region stretching from northern Greenland to the North Pole, where thick, multi-year ice normally prevails, large areas of open water appeared. Satellites are the only option for observing changes like these over longer periods as well as for the entire Arctic. To develop new methods and improve existing ones, a comprehensive remote-sensing program was carried out during the MOSAiC expedition. Dr. Gunnar Spreen was on board the Polarstern during the first and last legs of the MOSAiC expedition and will report on his impressions and the research results.

Speaker: Dr. Gunnar Spreen