Speakers of the Digital Summer Campus 2026

Dr. Christian Klager is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Rostock. He leads the Department of Philosophy Education. His primary areas of work and research include, in particular, the methods and methodology of philosophy, theories of play, philosophical skepticism, and philosophy with children and adolescents.

Assistant Professor Linda Glawe assumed the Chair of Empirical Economic Research at the Institute of Economics at the University of Rostock for the 2024/25 winter semester. She also conducts research at the Center for European and Asian Macroeconomic Studies (CEAMES) and serves as co-director of the Quantitative Regional and Computational Science (QuaRCS) Network. Previously, she served as an assistant professor at University of Technology Chemnitz.

Her research interests include, in particular, development economics, macroeconomics, and institutional economics. Her current projects include, among others, the study of convergence processes in the EU, nonlinearities in the relationship between inflation, growth, and uncertainty, light-based estimates of economic activity in China, and the analysis of the role of media sentiment indicators in various macroeconomic contexts.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Volker Kühn studied electrical engineering at the University of Paderborn. After earning his master’s degree in 1994, he became a research assistant in the Department of Communications Engineering and received his Ph.D. in 1998. He then moved to the University of Bremen, where he completed his habilitation in communications engineering in 2005. From 2005 to 2006, he worked briefly for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies in Nuremberg. Since 2006, he has been a professor of communications engineering at the University of Rostock. There, he heads the Institute of Communications Engineering, served as dean of the Faculty of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from 2012 to 2016, and is currently the vice dean of the faculty.

His research activities currently focus on two areas. On the one hand, he deals with various aspects of current mobile communication systems. On the other hand, a new research area has been added in recent years through a collaboration with the University Medical Centre Rostock, in which signal processing for medical applications is the primary focus.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Niels Grabow has been a professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University Medical Center Rostock since 2018. His expertise is the field of implant and biomaterial development. Grabow is the spokesperson for the “Biomedical Engineering/Biomaterials” research field at the University Medical Centre Rostock and the academic advisor for the bachelor’s and master’s programs in “Biomedical Engineering” at the University of Rostock. His publications focus on the development of new stent-based implant systems as well as surface modifications and process technologies for biomaterials.

Dr. Uta Buttkewitz studied German language, history, prehistory and early history, and English linguistics at the University of Rostock, earning her doctorate with a dissertation on the problem of simulation in the works of Thomas Mann. Following an internship at the Museum for Communication in Berlin, she has worked on various projects and in various departments at the University of Rostock since 2006, both as a researcher in the Department of Communication Studies and in academic administration. She headed the Graduate Academy and the Welcome Center at the University of Rostock for several years each. Since 2022, she has served as Coordinator for Internationalization Affairs and heads the Incoming Division at the International Office. She also serves as an advisor to the Pro-Rector of International Affairs, Transfer and Communication Culture.

Jette Strohschneider studied English and European Studies in Sweden, with a focus on literary studies and the culture of remembrance. While still a student, she worked as a student assistant at the International Office of Kristianstad University. In 2022, she began working at the International Office of the University of Greifswald and later worked briefly at the Humboldt Foundation in Berlin as well as in Greifswald at the KreativEU University Alliance. Since November 2025, she has been part of the International Office in Rostock, where she supports international and visiting students. She also helps coordinate the medical winter and summer schools.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Volkmar Zabel is a civil engineer whose work focuses on the fields of structural dynamics and system identification. He is responsible for the Bachelor’s program in Civil Engineering as well as for all courses in mechanics, statics, and dynamics for the Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering programs.

His research consistently focuses on methods for assessing and evaluating the condition of existing structures and representing them in numerical models. Structural monitoring, data analysis, and the identification of model parameters play a major role in his work.

Professor of Political Science/Comparative Government at the University of Rostock. Previously, he was a research fellow at the University of Mainz, an adjunct professor of International Relations and Comparative Political Systems at the University of Landau, an adjunct professor of International Relations at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, and an adjunct professor of Political Science at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt.

He has served as a visiting professor at the German Historical Institute in Paris (France), the University of Ottawa (Canada), the AICGS/Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C., the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law (China), the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires (Argentina), at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin (USA), at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre (Brazil), the National University of La Plata (Argentina), and Ewha Womans University in Seoul (South Korea), as well as in Mexico, India, Poland, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Spain.

His research interests include comparative democratization, populism, political parties, and elections, with a regional focus on the Americas and Western Europe, particularly Germany and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Harald Aschemann received the Diploma degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hanover, Germany, in 1994, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Measurement, Control, and Microtechnology, University of Ulm, Germany, in 2001.

In 1996, after two years of work in research and development with a leading company in machine tools, he joined the Department of Measurement, Control, and Microtechnology, University of Ulm, where he was a Research Associate and a Lecturer.

Since 2006, he has been a Full Professor and the Head of the Chair of Mechatronics, University of Rostock, Germany. His research interests involve control-oriented modeling, identi- cation, optimization, and nonlinear control and estimation with application to mechatronics, robotics, and thermofluidic systems.

Dr. Stefanie Kohl hat von 2004 bis 2011 an der Universität Rostock studiert. Sie ist seit 2013 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Uwe Johnson-Professur für Neuere deutsche Literaturwissenschaft des 20. Jahrhunderts am Institut für Germanistik der Universität Rostock. Sie unterrichtet regelmäßig die Studienanfänger in den literaturwissenschaftlichen Grundlagen der Germanistik, also in den Begriffen und Methoden des Faches . Darüber hinaus ist sie Fachstudienberaterin für den Bachelor Germanistik.

Dr. Stefanie Kohl studied at the University of Rostock from 2004 to 2011. Since 2013, she has been a research assistant at the Uwe Johnson Chair of 20th-Century Modern German Literature at the Department of German Studies at the University of Rostock. She regularly teaches first-year students the fundamentals of literary studies in German, specifically the concepts and methods of the discipline. In addition, she serves as the academic advisor for the Bachelor’s program in German Studies.