The new round of the IDK Rethinking Environment has started!
12 new PhD students met during our kick-off-week from October 6-9 in Augsburg and Munich to learn more about the aims of the program, and take a glimpse into the program schedule. They had a chance to chat with advisors and former IDK PhD students during a prolonged brunch, get to know coordination and WZU staff, and learn the basics about IKD administration, language classes, and the libraries in both Augsburg and Munich.
Christian Schnurr from the first cohort and student assistant Nicholas Schoch took the group on a stroll across the Augsburg Campus with its insect “hotels,” bio-diverse meadows, and birdhouses. After meeting Environmental Ethics professor Kerstin Schloegl-Flierl in downtown Augsburg we visited the information center of the UNESCO world heritage site “Water Management” and walked along the Lech-canals that run through the city. In Munich, IDK speaker Prof. Dr. Sonja Dümpelmann introduced the group to the RCC and its immediate surroundings (including the English Garden) and walked them to their new offices in Schellingstraße. The down-to-earth Bavarian lunch that followed was well-deserved!
Perhaps the most memorable part of the kick-off was the poster session on day one. PhD students visualized their projects and thereby created an exhibition that allowed for engaged conversations. An important aspect of this activity was the creative engagement with other PhD students project posters: adding a plant where there’s only humans or connecting sky and mountains through a gondola is certainly an interference with another person’s work–but if it’s done in a friendly, attentive, and supportive way it’s interdisciplinarity at its best!