Interdisciplinary Conference of the Young Forum of the Görres Society in collaboration with the Center for Life Ethics (University of Bonn) Medicine and healthcare are shaped by innovation, progress, and data. The current digital transformation is revolutionizing healthcare at an unprecedented pace. From AI-assisted diagnostics and telemedicine consultations to digital health applications (DiGA) and electronic health records, all the way to the use of robotics and AI in diagnostics, therapy, and care. Above all, these technological innovations promise more efficient processes, more precise, personalized therapies, and a reduced workload for all staff.   The far-reaching transformation currently underway is clearly more than just a technological or economic process. It touches on the very core of human existence: our vulnerability, our autonomy, and our need for care. The digital transformation of the healthcare system therefore raises pressing ethical questions. Some examples include: How can we safeguard patients’ well-being amid the tension between algorithmic decision-making and medical or nursing expertise? How are technologies changing interpersonal relationships in medicine and nursing? And how can healthcare institutions shape this transformation in a fair and values-driven manner?   Everyone interested in the topic—which will be discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective—is invited.

To sharpen and further develop its academic profile, the university has established Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs). As novel, innovation-promoting organizational structures, the TRAs focus university research on key scientific, technological, and societal issues of the future. They serve as creative and exploratory platforms where disciplines and faculties come together around specific themes and coordinate their strategic development. The research questions and knowledge transfer activities required for this are often generated within existing and advanced projects, which continue to evolve over the course of the project. Against this backdrop, the TRA Individuals and Societies program is offering one-time funding (total amount: 70,000 EUR; funding period: 2026) to support several projects (up to 25,000 EUR) with the aim of expanding projects to include interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary modules and, in the foreseeable future, submitting an application for (competitive) third-party funding, or initiating outstanding transfer activities.

In recent years, the rise of authoritarian and populist tendencies within democracies onceconsidered stable has become a matter of deep concern. Despite the urgency of thisdevelopment, systematic knowledge of the underlying causes and the mechanisms capable ofcountering this development remains fragmented and incomplete. This points to a pressing needfor reflection on what enables democracy to function and endure. The conference takes this challenge as its starting point. It seeks to identify the social,institutional, and normative foundations that sustain democratic governance and to explore howthese can be strengthened. Relevant questions arise in particular within the following thematicareas: Democratic capabilities and the enabling of civil society; modes of participation; thenecessities of social inclusion; social cohesion and collective building; education and theorganization of knowledge; trust and commitment; as well as modern mechanisms ofdemocracy protection. By addressing these dimensions, the conference aims to deepen the understanding of howdemocracies can be made resilient – not only through legal and institutional safeguards, butalso through civic empowerment, social solidarity, and new modes of participation. It invitescontributions that explore the theoretical premises and the practical instruments that foster thevitality of democratic life, bridging insights from political science, sociology, law, philosophy,and related disciplines to chart new pathways for the renewal of democracy. Thisinterdisciplinary dialogue seeks to move beyond isolated analyses toward a holisticunderstanding of the enabling conditions of democracy.

In association with the Udo Keller Stiftung Forum Humanum and the TRA 4 – Individuals,Institutions and Societies, the International Centre for Philosophy (IZPH) of the University ofBonn is offering up to 5 Forum Humanum fellowships to qualified doctoral and mastersstudents from any department in the social sciences or humanities at the University of Bonn toparticipate at two events of the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities (IPNH) in2026: an event to be held at the University of Kyōto (Kyōto April 20-24) and an event to beheld at the New School for Social Research (New York City, Sep. 21-25).Since its inception in 2020, the IPNH has been committed to reformulating some of the mostbasic questions of the humanities in light of the ongoing transformation brought about byartificial intelligence. The so-called “AI revolution” has altered not only our social, political,and technological environments but also the very conceptual frameworks through which thehumanities have historically understood the human being, nature, reason, and the world.At the IPNH, we are convinced that the humanities can no longer merely comment on thesetransformations from the outside. Instead, they must take an active role in shaping new modesof understanding — combining historical-hermeneutic methods with advancedepistemological, ontological, and aesthetic theorizing. The aim is to create a new conceptualvocabulary capable of addressing the questions AI raises for selfhood, agency, interpretation,and the conditions of meaning.

Annemarie Schimmel’s life and work has built bridges between East and West, between Islam and Christianity and has inspired researchers of religion around the globe. On the occasion of her 100th birthday, the Annemarie Schimmel Fellowship was established to give international PhD students and young scholars the opportunity for a stay at the International Center for Comparative Theology and Social Issues (CTSI) at Bonn University to pursue research in the field of Comparative Theology. The Fellowship will support the CTSI’s goal of providing a space for exchange and bridge-building between various religious traditions.

In association with the Udo Keller Stiftung Forum Humanum and the TRA Individuals, Institutions and Societies, the International Centre for Philosophy (IZPH) of the University of Bonn is offering 6 Forum Humanum fellowships to qualified doctoral and masters students from any department in the social sciences or humanities at the University of Bonn to participate at two events of the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities (IPNH) this autumn: an event to be held at the New School for Social Research (New York City, Sep. 1-5) and at an event to be held at the Kyōto Institute of Philosophy (KIP) (Kyōto, Sep. 22-26). Researchers within the TRA Individuals and Societies investigate how institutions mediate complex relationships between individuals and society and thereby develop a new view of micro-phenomena (development of personality, agency, individualization) as well as macro-phenomena (world society, globalization). Sharing this research objective, the Institute for Philosophy and the New Humanities is founded on the premise that genuine knowledge acquisition, truth and objectivity are not the exclusive preserve of any single discipline or method. The concepts we deploy to understand and evaluate human cultural and scientific achievements also have to be placed within their broader social, political and intellectual context and therefore have to be approached from a truly interdisciplinary perspective. The Institute thus aims to bring together researchers from a variety of disciplines and draw on the resources of the social sciences, philosophy, and the humanities more generally, in order to pursue a collaborative understanding of the nature and goals of the humanistic and social scientific disciplines and to grapple with the challenges they face in light of the increasing prevalence of intellectual models imported from other disciplines. 

Social cohesion has many facets. For example, “the Council of Europe defines social cohesion as the ability of a society to ensure the well-being of all its members and to manage differences and divisions by minimising inequalities and avoiding marginalisation, and to ensure the means to achieve the well-being of all.” Social media, among others, play a special role in our society - with both integrating and fragmenting effects that need to be systematically empirically tested.At the same time, this correlates with questions about individual knowledge and skills, habits, behavioural styles and personality traits, but also about motives, goals and (educational) contexts, which can only be answered through cooperation between economics, sociology, law, psychology, theology, media studies and others.

Social cohesion has many facets. For example, “the Council of Europe defines social cohesion as the ability of a society to ensure the well-being of all its members and to manage differences and divisions by minimising inequalities and avoiding marginalisation, and to ensure the means to achieve the well-being of all.” Social media, among others, play a special role in our society - with both integrating and fragmenting effects that need to be systematically empirically tested. At the same time, this correlates with questions about individual knowledge and skills, habits, behavioural styles and personality traits, but also about motives, goals and (educational) contexts that can only be answered through cooperation between economics, sociology, law, psychology, theology, media studies and others.