Review: Welcome Event

For the 20 international doctoral researchers and their 20 project supervisors, the opening ceremony in the beautiful Law Lecture Hall at the University of Augsburg was the first opportunity to finally get to know each other personally and to exchange ideas. The President of the University of Augsburg, Prof. Dr. Sabine Döring-Manteuffel, emphasized the importance of the Environmental Humanities for future-oriented environmental research at the University of Augsburg in her very personal greeting. Prof. Dr. Christof Mauch (Munich), Prof. Dr. Matthias Schmidt (Augsburg), PD Dr. Simone Müller (Munich), and Prof. Dr. Hubert Zapf (Augsburg) emphasized the intellectual gain, the social and personal benefit, the professional opportunities, and the creative potential of environmental research in the humanities and social sciences. Following their speeches, both the doctoral researchers and the supervisors shared their individual and scholarly motivation for taking part in the IDK “Um(Welt)Denken”. A foretaste of the role of art and culture, which the International Doctoral Program investigates in many of its sub-projects, was given by the horn player Abigail Sanders. She contributed a series of whale songs that she had transcribed into musical notation. It was a premiere — and deeply moving.