Diaspora Studies Research Network

Latest news!

• Congratulations Dr. Minseok Kang!

  We warmly congratulate Dr. Minseok Kang on the successful completion and defense of his doctoral dissertation on June 15, 2026!
  
  His PhD project reinterprets religious education in the GDR through the concepts of diaspora, ecumenism, and the public sphere, drawing on Jürgen Habermas’s theory of Öffentlichkeit. Focusing on Die Christenlehre—the GDR’s only religious education journal—the study examines its role in forming an ecumenical public sphere in diaspora.
  
  We wish Dr. Kang all the best and continued success in his future journey!

  

• FZRBs´ New Doctoral School "Communities and Networks"

  We are delighted to announce that in June 2025, our doctoral program, the Doctoral School of the Diaspora Studies Research Network, was officially integrated into the Graduate Academy of our institution.
  
  Learn More

  

• Congratulations to Dr. Şeyma Aksoy!

  The FNDS extends its warmest congratulations to Dr. Şeyma Aksoy on successfully defending her dissertation on March 20, 2025. Her groundbreaking research, titled "German Education Transfer to Turkey (1923-1946)," was supported by TÜBİTAK and the BBF – Research Library for the History of Education – and supervised by Professor Mustafa Gündüz and Professor Dr. Michael Wermke.

  

• Dr. Stefan van der Hoek Graduates with "Magna Cum Laude"!

  We extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Stefan van der Hoek on successfully defending his dissertation in August 2024! His work, titled "Towards a Transformed We: A Qualitative Study on the Otherness of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and Tasks of Evangelical Community Education," was awarded the distinction "magna cum laude."
  
  Professor Dr. Michael Wermke and Professor Dr. Roland Merten supervised the dissertation. Professor Dr. Nikolaus Knoepffler chaired the examination committee.