International Days 2025
This year’s International Days focused once again on excellent students and researchers, international partnerships and intercultural dialogue. Alongside the presentation of the state awards and the DAAD Prize for exceptional early-career researchers, the Vice Rectorate for International Affairs also hosted a wide range of events.
One of these, called “Ask an Ambassador!,” gave interested students and researchers the chance to network with the Bonn University Ambassadors and chat about their plans to spend time abroad or possibilities for collaboration. Meanwhile, a workshop reserved for the Ambassadors themselves provided a platform for discussing future prospects and potential partnerships between their home universities and the University of Bonn.
International Days 2025
Bild © Universität Bonn / YouTube
Networking with the Bonn University Ambassadors
The “Ask an Ambassador!” networking event enabled students and researchers at the University of Bonn to talk with the Bonn University Ambassadors, each of whom was given their own booth. Here they could introduce their home universities and countries, talk about specific opportunities for collaboration and give first-hand reports on doctoral studies, research and teaching abroad. As well as obtaining information on visits and research partnerships, the students and researchers could also establish direct contacts for future international projects. The event was topped off with a selection of culinary delights from the Ambassadors’ own countries.
Bonn University Ambassadors from Brazil, Canada, Ghana, India, Israel, Japan, Jordan, the UK and the US had traveled to Bonn for the International Days this year. All former guest researchers at the University of Bonn, they share not only personal and academic ties to their alma mater but also a commitment to representing it on the international stage and actively encouraging academic dialogue. In this vein, a workshop organized just for them provided an opportunity to chat about future research projects and prospects.
Early-career researchers at the University of Bonn recognized with awards
This year too, outstanding students and researchers from the University of Bonn were honored with the state awards and the DAAD Prize. Sponsored by the French, Spanish and UK governments, the state awards are conferred in recognition of excellent academic achievements and international engagement. At the presentation ceremony, representatives from the sponsor governments and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) handed their awards in person to the recipients, who were then given the chance to showcase their award-winning work in a series of “science nuggets.”
Keynote "The Promise of the City"
The ceremonial opening to this year’s program came courtesy of Professor Pratyush Shankar, a Bonn University Ambassador from Navrachana University in India, who gave a keynote lecture entitled “The Promise of the City: Imagining the Future of Urban Communities in India.”
Planning and designing modern urban spaces is especially relevant in India as the most populous country on the planet. Indian cities are growing rapidly, making life exciting but also highly challenging for urban planners and the general public alike. Although India has a smaller urban population than other Asian countries in percentage terms, the sheer number of people in the country gives it one of the highest absolute figures for urban-rural migration in the world. India is also among the most heterogeneous nations on Earth, being home to hundreds of languages and cultures that can be found across the whole of the Indian subcontinent.
In Shankar’s view, architects, city planners and politicians are able to draw on a great wealth of local and regional experience and traditions but must also succeed in reconciling contradictions in an innovative way to form a coherent whole.
Queen's Prize
Lara Putensen won the Queen’s Prize for her master’s thesis entitled “Pop Goes Profanity: Vulgarity Trends in English Chart Hits from 2000 to 2024.” Created by Queen Elizabeth II when she visited the University of Bonn in 1965, the award recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of English studies. In her thesis, Putensen analyzes how the use of vulgarity in English-language pop lyrics has changed over the past two decades and what this reveals about processes of language change in society. Helga Stellmacher, Director of the British Council in Germany, sent a video greeting in congratulation.
Premio Rey de España
The King of Spain’s Premio Rey de España award, which has been presented since 1992 for exceptional research in the field of Ibero-Romance philology, had two winners this year. Helena Cosano conveyed her congratulations, likewise via video message, on behalf of the Spanish Embassy.
Steffen Heidkämper received the award for his bachelor’s thesis “Zur Konstruktion kollektiver Identität in argentinischen und chilenischen Fußballhymnen: eine sprachwissenschaftliche Diskursanalyse” (“On Building Collective Identity in Argentinian and Chilean Football Songs: A Linguistic Discourse Analysis”), and Leonhard Brandt for his master’s thesis “Die Natur des Widerstands – Cuerpo-Territorio bei Menchú und Payeras? Eine ökofeministische Annäherung an guatemaltekische Testimonialliteratur des Bürgerkriegs” (“The Nature of Resistance—Cuerpo-Territorio in Menchú and Payeras? An Eco-Feminist Approach to Guatemalan Testimonial Literature of the Civil War”).
Prix de la République française
The Prix de la République française went to Julian Dämpfle for his bachelor’s thesis “Die maschinelle Übersetzung von deutschen Pressetexten ins Französische mit DeepL. Eine Fehleranalyse” (“Machine-Translating German Press Texts into French using DeepL. An Analysis of Errors”). Claire Demesnay, Director of the Institut français in Bonn, presented the award to Dämpfle’s supervisors in person. The prize also funds a research stay in France for either study or documentation purposes.
DAAD Prize
Presented by Katharina Fleckenstein on behalf of the DAAD, this year’s DAAD Prize was won by Yohanes Ginting, a doctoral student at the Institute of Geosciences, in recognition of his outstanding academic achievements and exceptional social engagement. Ginting is researching the carbon dynamics of tropical peatlands on Borneo as part of his doctorate in Meteorology. Alongside his research, he is involved in “Children in the Climate Crisis,” a project that is expanding environmental education in schools and daycare centers, as well as launching the NEXUS platform, a dialogue and networking initiative for early-career researchers.
Grand opening of Leah’s World Café
A new space for art and intercultural dialogue
The International Days also witnessed the opening of Leah’s World Café by the Vice Rectorate for International Affairs in partnership with the Studierendenwerk Bonn. Alongside food and drink, the café also offers a space for dialogue and exhibitions. It is named after University of Bonn alumna Leah Goldberg, who obtained her doctorate here in 1933 before going on to be a poet, translator and author and a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The café is honoring her academic and literary work—but also, and in particular, her ability to speak multiple languages—with a presentation of her books and a wall featuring quotes from her.
Leah’s World Café also hosts temporary exhibitions, and any member of the University is able to submit their art—photography, drawings or paintings—for consideration. There is a QR code inside the café. Currently on display are Volker Lannert’s photographs from the performance “Зберегти коріння, пустити коріння” (“Saving Roots and Putting Down Roots”), which formed part of the “Cherson on Stage” theme week in August 2025. The actors involved, all part of the Ukrainian playback theater group “sGRAia,” also attended the grand opening.
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