On 7 January 2026, the CultCryo ERC project team will kick off the new year with a three-day workshop. From 7 to 9 January, the Paderborn working group, led by Prof. Dr. Suzana Alpsancar, will invite the entire ERC team to East Westphalia for the annual project workshop. The workshop aims to create synergy through the four major case studies of the ERC team (food, air conditioning, biomedicine, computing). This workshop will focus on data…
As part of the ERC project ‘Cultures of the Cryosphere’, the Paderborn team is pleased to announce that two keynote speeches will enrich the three-day workshop. On 8 January, keynote speakers Dr. Martin Schmitt (UPB) and Dr. Patrick Brodie (University College Dublin) will give presentations on the history of data centres in Germany and Ireland respectively.
From 11:15 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., you will have the opportunity to attend Dr. Martin…
In early December, a new article by Wessel Reijers, Tobias Matzner and Suzana Alpsancar entitled "Explainability and AI Governance: Between Argumentation and Conviction" will be published as a chapter in the anthology "Digital Development: Technology, Ethics and Governance". This volume opens a multidisciplinary reflection on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and digitalisation in the fields of technology, epistemology,…
From 18 to 19 June 2026, the VDI and GUG will host the workshop “...never neutral”: Practices, concepts and methods of evaluating technology over the last 50 years at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The workshop aims to conduct an empirical examination of case studies and significant changes over time from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Abstracts for the workshop can be submitted to teupe@unternehmensgeschichte.de until 10 December 2025.
Fur…
From 28 to 29 May 2026, Suzana Alpsancar and Sebastian Luft will host a workshop on “Experience, Meaning and AI” at the University of Paderborn. The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars to engage in-depth with ongoing work on these topics from various traditions and perspectives within and adjacent to philosophy, including analytical philosophy, phenomenology, history of philosophy, science and technology, and social theory.
Abstra…
At the beginning of the month, the anthology ‘Algorithmic Knowledge Cultures – The Influence of Computers on Scientific Development’ will be published. It deals with the algorithmisation of science. This work includes a chapter written by Suzana Alpsancar entitled ‘Algorithmic Cultures of Plant Collecting? The Example of the Computerisation of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum in Berlin’.
The annual SICP Symposium takes place on 30 September at Zukunftsmeile 2. The programme consists of keynote speeches and interactive panel discussions. Suzana Alpsancar participates as an expert in the panel discussion on the topic of ‘Physical and Digital Infrastructure’.
On 24 September, Sven Thomas gives a presentation entitled ‘Deconstructing the Narrative of the Loneliness Epidemic: A Phenomenological Perspective with Anders, Arendt and Levinas’ at the doctoral colloquium of the German Society for Phenomenological Research at TU Darmstadt.
On 18 September, FernUniversität Hagen hosts the Forum Philosophicum. As part of this event, Suzana Alpsancar gives a presentation on ‘AI Ethics and Sustainability’. The presentation can be viewed on the FernUniversität Hagen Campus and online via Zoom.
On 18 September, Sven Thomas gives a presentation entitled ‘Power Relationships! On loneliness as a commodity using the example of dating apps’ at the annual conference of the Society for Media Studies 2025 ‘*MACHT*’ in Paderborn.
The Sustainable AI Conference 2025 takes place in Bonn from 16. to 18. September. There, Suzana Alpsancar gives a presentation on ‘Sustainability vs. scalability’.
From 7 to 9 July, the CryoCultures ERC project team met for a workshop in Darmstadt. The focus of this meeting was on the term "freshness", its origin and further associations and its development in recent decades. In keeping with this, the team visited the "Perishable Centre Frankfurt", which is an important hub at Frankfurt Airport. Fresh goods from all over the world, such as high-quality beef from Japan or medicine from the USA, land there…
As part of the history colloquium, Linda Otto will present the results of her work on the topic "Interdisciplinarity between computer science, business and culture. The history of the Heinz Nixdorf Institute". The lecture will focus on the perspectives of contemporary witnesses who have shaped the HNI, as well as scientific staff and employees from the administration, but also people from outside the institute.
The lecture will take place on…
On 7 July at 6 p.m., Suzana Alpsancar will speak on the topic of "XAI and the invisibilisation of AI. On the tension between explainable AI and the blind spots of common AI myths". The lecture is part of the lecture series "(In)Visibilisations of the digital transformation in society, science and art", which is organised by the Faculty of Philosophy at Kiel University.
This year's conference of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) will take place from 1 to 3 July. There, Sven Thomas will give a talk on Believable AI Agents.
