The colloquium was organized by Dr. Samantha Ruppel and her , which has been based at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate since 2024. Other Peace Academy employees contributed to the content of the colloquium. Annalena Groppe organized a workshop on "Affective Polarization as a Challenge - Dealing with Affectivity in Teaching and Peace Education Practice" together with and ) and ). Christopher Rohles presented his paper "Between (inter)national norms and customary authorities: How do Civil Society Organizations navigate power dynamics and normative complexity in land reform in Sierra Leone" and Janpeter Schilling spoke about "Our Struggles with Resilience: Using Political Ecology to Strengthen the Concept of Resilience in Empirical Conflict Research and Critical Policy Analysis". In his role as second chairman of the AFK board, Schilling closed the event with some reflections.

After a welcoming address by Prof. Dr. Janpeter Schilling, Scientific Director of the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate, Dr. Lisa Lehnen, research associate at Landau University (º£½ÇÖ±²¥), introduced the topic. The four panel guests then shared their perspectives: Eckard Fuhr, author and chairman of the Brandenburg-Berlin Ecological Hunting Association, Dr. Julia Poerting, research assistant at the University of Heidelberg, Stefan Kuntz, operator of an organic winery with a school farm, and Jan Schöne, expert on wolves for the NABU regional association in Saxony. Janpeter Schilling led through various topics, including herd protection, the hunting of wolves and their social and ecological significance. It became clear that while wolves pose a threat to livestock and farm animals such as sheep and alpacas, they do not generally pose a threat to humans. Another key finding of the evening was that the various demands and expectations of livestock farming, nature conservation and hunting must be considered and brought together so that humans and wolves can live together with minimal conflict.

In his welcoming address,Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, Managing Director of the Rhineland-Palatinate Peace Academy, highlighted the special role of the federal state in terms of peace and security policy. The nuclear threat to Rhineland-Palatinate and humanity must not be ignored, even if the topic is uncomfortable.

The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists shows: The danger of nuclear war is currently higher than perhaps ever before. Despite this threat, however, there is a social and political silence on the subject. Dr. Walter-Drop therefore thanked the candidates, the audience and the "Aktionsbündnis atomwaffenfrei.jetzt" for addressing this difficult but important issue.

The event was moderated by Simon Bödecker). In addition to the representatives of the political parties (see right), from the also took to the podium to provide an expert assessment of the politicians' statements at the request of the organizers.

The idea for the panel discussion arose from the desire to bring the highly topical issue of nuclear weapons in Rhineland-Palatinate into the state election campaign. The event in Mainz succeeded in doing just that!

With the support of Ohne Rüstung Leben, the "Aktionsbündnis atomwaffenfrei.jetzt" and the Rhineland-Palatinate Peace Academy facilitated an objective and controversial exchange. And they have shown how important the exchange between politics, science and civil society is for a peace policy debate culture in Rhineland-Palatinate.

You can find a detailed report on the positions of the candidates and the content of the debate in the .

The panel discussion was also recorded live and .

The film accompanies the movement at a time of deep crisis: after the attacks of October 7, 2023 and during the subsequent Gaza war. In haunting images, it shows how difficult and at the same time existentially important it is to hold on to the idea of cooperation and peace, even when hatred and despair threaten to take over.

Following the screening, political scientist moderated a lively and emotional discussion with the audience. The discussions revolved around current developments in the Middle East conflict, the political and social dynamics in Israel and the Gaza Strip and the question of how peace initiatives can continue to work under the current conditions. Many contributions to the discussion made it clear how great the need for dialog, humanity and mutual understanding is in times of ongoing violence.

The Peace Academy blog would like to make the contributions and perspectives of this event visible beyond the time and place of the conferences in a blog series. , Director of the Protestant Academy of the Palatinate, and , Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at the University of Augsburg, take up the invitation of the Peace Memorandum to examine positions and formulate questions in their opening contribution entitled "More dissent for just peace - questions and impulses for the necessary peace ethics debate" and focus on twelve subject areas that require further discussion and in which the recognition of dissent could make a valuable contribution to peace. The questions are intended to stimulate and structure the debate.

In this context, we invite you to write strong comments (500-700 words): What understanding of peace underlies the memorandum? Who is "protected from violence" and which forms of violence are considered? How can peace studies perspectives (e.g. peace logic, peacebuilding, civil conflict transformation) shed light on the controversies? The other contributions and comments will be published successively in order to enable mutual references between the participants.

The continuously published debate contributions can be followed from the end of January on /friedensakademie/blog. Please send your own submissions to friedensakademie-blog[at]rPTU.de! Would you like to write a contribution but are not present at the events? Then please coordinate the topic with us(a.groppe[at]rptu.de) in advance.

Click here for the opening article by Christoph Picker and Christoph Weller.

The game was developed by the company "" from Berlin and in coordination with the , the and the.

On January 23, 2026, we subjected the simulation game to an extensive initial test at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ in Kaiserslautern with a group of mainly student teachers, led by and Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop. This was very successful in that, on the one hand, it was great fun for the participants to take on their roles (which ranged from the Federal Chancellor to NATO and disarmament NGOs); on the other hand, the "game mechanics" (which are modeled on real consultation and lobbying processes) also proved their worth.

At the same time, the range of topics that can be covered in schools became clear. This ranges from fundamental elements of the topic of "peace" and "security policy" (in Germany, Europe and worldwide) to the specific topics of "nuclear weapons", "nuclear deterrence" and "nuclear non-proliferation" and is directly linked to highly topical debates. It can be used in the context of both social studies and history lessons, but also in physics or chemistry, provided that nuclear power and nuclear weapons are covered.

We will now revise the materials and are planning the first (pilot) implementations at schools in Rhineland-Palatinate in May 2026 (including the and the ). The simulation game will be available to all secondary schools in Rhineland-Palatinate for the 2026/2027 school year. If you are interested, please contact the management of the Peace Academy directly.

Afterwards, Dr. Melanie Müller (Berlin) was re-elected Chairperson and Christian Sterzing (Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Peace Academy, Landau) was re-elected Deputy Chairperson.

The Managing Director of the Peace Academy, Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, first reported on the Peace Academy's diverse public and academic activities in the months since the last Advisory Board meeting in May 2025 and emphasized on the one hand the range of topics covered and on the other hand the increased presence of the Academy in Rhineland-Palatinate through events beyond Landau in Kaiserslautern, Mainz and Trier. New partner organizations have been found "locally" to increase the visibility of the work throughout the state, which also contributes to the further networking of the Academy. The Advisory Board was pleased to note that the Peace Academy's digital presence has also improved with the new website (still partly in progress) and that the Peace Academy blog and the "Fokus-Frieden" podcast, two formats that are attracting increasing interest. The Peace Academy has thus also fulfilled a wish expressed by the Advisory Board in last year's evaluation report.

Academic Director Prof. Dr. Janpeter Schilling presented the main features of the strategic reorientation of the content of the work: "Environmental and resource conflicts", "Peace education and conflicts about democracy" and "Conflict transformation and peace perspectives" form the three newly formulated focal points of the work following discussions in the Advisory Board and the team - with natural overlaps between the topics and also Rhineland-Palatinate references.

The Advisory Board also intensively discussed a completely different topic: the Academic Statutes and Rules of Procedure. In the context of the university's internal reorganization, a legally and institutionally secure structure is also to be created for the work of the Peace Academy as a "central academic institution" at º£½ÇÖ±²¥. Initial drafts by the management of the Peace Academy also led to stimulating discussions and laid the foundation for further work on these texts before they are submitted to the relevant committees for approval in the course of 2026.

The World Café format invited participants to engage in discussions in small groups around four thematic tables. The discussions focused on the following topics: Big Geopolitical Questions / Global Power, Environmental and Water Resources (and Conflicts), Local Resilience, Intersectional Vulnerabilities.

The rotating structure of the format made it possible to combine a wide range of perspectives and experiences. At each table, a host moderated the discussions, documented the most important findings and summarized them at the end of the session in a joint closing round.

The World Café thus provided a lively space for interdisciplinary dialog and networking - with the aim of generating new impetus for research and practice in the field of climate resilience and conflict transformation.

After introductory words from Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, the managing director of the Peace Academy, and Pastor Andreas Kuntz from the Johanneskirche Landau, who had originally established contact with CfP, Sulaiman Khatib, one of the co-founders of CfP, and the much younger Carly Rosenthal, who is responsible for the organization's public relations work, spoke. Both spoke in a very personal way about their lives, which have taken completely different paths - the son of a very old Palestinian family from the Jerusalem area here and the Australian-born daughter of a family of Holocaust survivors from Hungary there. Against the backdrop of very different but very incisive experiences in their lives, both felt that the conventional conflict narratives of their respective environments were misguided. Both broke out of the dominant thought patterns and met in an organization that takes a completely different approach and whose highest principle is mutual respect and acceptance - not least for the perspective and suffering of others.

There was hardly anyone in the room who was not touched by these stories and the way in which the guests came together. They showed how it is possible to think about the conflict in the Middle East from the perspective of shared humanity in such a different way than we usually hear in Germany and that there are and have always been people there who are prepared to take a completely different path together.

We very much hope to welcome CfP back to Rhineland-Palatinate in 2026 and will let you know in good time!

As part of his research, he discussed the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the implementation of land reform financed by multilateral organizations in Sierra Leone. Rohles showed that local CSOs operate in an area of conflicting dependencies and that funding from the World Bank in particular has a negative impact on the perception of customary authorities. Cooperation between CSOs and customary authorities is central to the implementation of the reform. The lecture offered insights into current development policy dynamics in the so-called global South and the associated post-colonial structures. In addition to the interdisciplinary professional exchange, the event also helped participants to get to know the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate and the research group "Architecture Theory History" at º£½ÇÖ±²¥.

. The basis for awarding the teaching prize is the evaluation results of the course participants.

The contribution was entitled: "Turning point(s) and development cooperation: Classification of the political world situation"

The focus was on current geopolitical upheavals and their impact on international development cooperation. Among other things, the lecture highlighted

• the changing significance of development cooperation in terms of security policy in the context of the "turning point",
• the role of right-wing populist narratives in donor countries and their impact on the legitimacy of development cooperation,
• current developments in the USA (including "Project 2025") and their signaling effect,
• as well as the influence of European and German politics, particularly with regard to the new coalition agreement.

With regard to civil society actors, the article posed the question: What scope for action remains when development cooperation is geopolitically charged and its normative substance comes under pressure?

"Ohne Rüstung Leben" published a compiled .

The panel discussion at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ University Kaiserslautern-Landau (º£½ÇÖ±²¥) followed on Saturday. Dr. Gregor Walter-Drop, Dr. Sumiko Hatakeyama, Dr. Steffen Hagemann and Juliane Hauschulz discussed the question "In the shadow of the mushroom cloud" - Panel discussion: Security without nuclear weapons - (How) can this succeed?".

The cooperation between the project partners Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate, Ohne Rüstung Leben, ICAN and IPPNW has also resulted in various projects for young people. These include a simulation game "Nuclear Weapons Policy" in which pupils take on different roles, deal intensively with nuclear weapons and get to know different perspectives and arguments on the topic.

You can find out more about the various projects and a summary of the panel discussion in the detailed

With 19 participants from practice and academia, the conference topic was explored in depth from a peace studies perspective. Based on concrete conflict episodes - both from research and from the experiences of the participants - different manifestations of violence in conflicts about democracy were analyzed and discussed. The workshop opened up spaces for reflection for pedagogical and professional action in dealing with authoritarian-populist challenges and invited participants to jointly address the question of how peace education can contribute to a practice that strengthens democracy.

The lecture was part of the event series "Peace in Theory?", which was conceived by Prof. Dr. Christina Schües (University of Lübeck). Using numerous empirical examples, Samantha Ruppel showed how local actors - despite structural inequalities - shape peace spaces and creatively adapt global norms to local contexts.

The following day, an in-depth workshop discussion entitled "The 'hybrid' peace? The entanglement of theory and practice". Together with the philosophers Cornelia Klinger, Pascal Delhom and Alfred Nordmann, central aspects of the lecture were taken up and discussed in an interdisciplinary manner. The focus was on questions of trust, technology, care and the linguistic limits of the concept of peace.

Samantha Ruppel's contribution provided an important impetus for the interdisciplinary discussion of peace concepts - and emphasized the need to understand peace work as a political and reflexive process.

Another important pillar of the work will be peace education and peace pedagogy. The visibility of the Academy's work in the region is to be increased, particularly by giving greater consideration to topics relevant to peace policy in Rhineland-Palatinate. The debate about priorities, whether in research or in publicly negotiated topics, will certainly continue to accompany the advisory activities of the new Advisory Board in the future. The specific challenge for the Academy, namely to be an interface between peace and conflict research and civil society peace engagement and to promote peace policy discourse, has lost none of its topicality.

Further information about the Advisory Board can be found here.

You can find the full job advert here:

From March 19 to 21, 2025, the annual colloquium of the Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research (AFK) took place in Landau in cooperation with the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate and the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ University Kaiserslautern-Landau (º£½ÇÖ±²¥). Under the title "Between Fake News, Hostility to Democracy and Scientific Skepticism", the conference dealt with current challenges for peace and conflict research.

In numerous panels, roundtables, workshops and discussion formats, the participants addressed questions of knowledge production, science communication, political education and methodological reflection. There was a particular focus on peace education concepts, feminist and decolonial perspectives and the role of research in social transformation processes.

The event not only offered space for academic exchange, but also for networking, for example in the context of working group meetings and a meeting of the Network of Women Peace Researchers. Highlights included the opening keynote discussion on international peace policy, a panel discussion on the role of peace research in the "turn of an era" and the ceremonial awarding of the Christiane Rajewsky Prize.

An optional city tour on "Landau in War and Peace" and numerous opportunities for personal exchange rounded off the varied program. The Colloquium 2025 was characterized by intensive debates, new impulses and a shared commitment to peace and social responsibility.

"In times of global conflicts and social tensions, the discourse on peace, equality and justice often seems to come to a dead end when it takes place exclusively on a rational, cognitive level. According to Johann Galtung, the level of the individual, which should be taken into account in peace prevention, could possibly be differentiated again. After all, we are not only made up of cognitions and are certainly not purely rational beings. As has often been shown in the past, it is probably not enough to say and know that war is not a solution and that all people are worth the same, that harmony and peace should be striven for on all three levels. It seems that other levels are needed in order to reach everyone, including those who are disgruntled, withdrawn or characterized by barriers."

Lena Anstädt wants to reach such a level with her new album "pour la paix." (engl. "For the peace"). She invites listeners on a musical journey that is more than just thought-provoking - she wants to make us feel. Lena Anstädt, who also works as a research assistant at the Peace Academy and is writing her thesis in the field of peace psychology, uses her music to touch people emotionally and give them access to a deeper form of reflection and inner contemplation. In her piano pieces, she combines dissonance with harmonic elements to subtly confront the listener with the tensions and contradictions of life without giving up hope. Her compositions are characterized by a gentle but haunting aesthetic that deliberately avoids exaggerated euphoria. "Striking joy," says Anstädt, "is often out of place in today's world." Instead, she focuses on a delicate balance of restlessness and serenity, which ultimately leads to a quiet but profound hope.

Music as a bridge to inner peace

In conversation with the composer, it becomes clear that she sees her music as a means of promoting inner peace as the basis for outer peace.

"Peace always starts with yourself and I'm not the first person to think that. So we probably can't avoid inner peace if we're looking for peace on the outside."

Quite apart from the current political situation and the media reports, we live in a world that is characterized by hectic, stress and constant pressure. Understandably, many of us find it difficult to calm down. Everyday challenges and the noise of the outside world make it almost impossible to achieve a state of inner balance. However, according to Anstädt, it is precisely this inner harmony that is a decisive step towards achieving peace in interpersonal and social spheres. Through her psychological work, she is aware that if we do not live like Anselm Grün or Mahatma Ghandi, this can be a daily challenge.

Her music offers a space to find peace and come to terms with one's own feelings. "Music has the ability to block out the external noise and connect us with our inner self," says Anstädt. "It creates an atmosphere in which we can escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life for a moment and focus on the essentials." According to Anstädt, this moment of contemplation is a necessary first step to finding peace within yourself.

The principle of homeostasis as an indication of the universal pursuit of peace

Lena Anstädt sees the pursuit of balance, homeostasis, as an indication of our striving for peace. "Everything strives for balance, be it biological systems or psychological phenomena such as cognitive dissonance, which we can barely tolerate and therefore try to resolve by changing our behavior. The smallest particles are guided by diffusion pressure and charge balancing, or an ecosystem that cannot survive if the principle of homeostasis is disturbed." For Anstädt, this universal longing for harmony is an indication that humans also have an inherent need for peace and balance. So instead of relying exclusively on communicative techniques or political measures, she advocates focusing more on developing an "inner homeostasis", an inner peace. "If we manage to get closer to this, I can well imagine that we will also be able to communicate peacefully with each other," says Anstädt. "After all, we humans are adaptable beings. If we don't have it in us, the question is whether we are even willing to use the communication skills we have learned."

Art as a mirror of society

In addition to her work at the Peace Academy, her final thesis and her music album, Lena Anstädt is also involved in the artistic exploration of social and political issues. In September, she was selected for an exhibition at the Düsseldorf City Museum, which took place under the motto "Check your Dogma" and was organized by the Düsseldorf Enlightenment Service. In her "musique concrète" piece, she layered various religious chants and sounds on top of each other, creating a deliberate dissonance to draw attention to the conflicts between different belief systems.

"If we sing and shout all our ideologies in our tiles, we will probably not be able to develop an ear for the realities of others. Coming together and true dialog then seems impossible. Even if they are ideologies about peace, we will not find a common denominator this way. Augustine also assumed that all people want peace, but on their own terms. The diversity of conditions creates a discrepancy that we cannot overcome by shouting even louder and trying to impose our own conditions."

Peace as an ongoing process

Here too, Anstädt sees the individual as the starting point. "I see it as an opportunity if we start with ourselves, recognize ourselves in our own tile, convictions and dare to try to listen to what others think and say; not to assume ourselves in the only truth and rightness. Modesty in our thinking can perhaps do no harm in order to carry some openness within us. Hard-hitting boundaries meet hard-hitting contradiction, soft boundaries can deform without violent conflict. Because how do I know what is right and wrong?" In this sense, she agrees with the Oracle of Delphi of the time, which, according to the stories, proclaimed that Socrates could be considered the most far-reaching of all. For he was aware that he could not really be certain of anything. Anstädt sees this form of wisdom and humility as an indispensable component when it comes to achieving inner and therefore also outer peace.

"It is from my heart, in peace, addressed to all hearts out there."

The new album "Pour la paix." by Lena Anstädt is available on iTunes, Apple Music and Spotify.

a student assistant at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate
as of April 15, 2025

The Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ University Kaiserslautern-Landau is looking for a student assistant (m/f/d) to work on the podcast "Fokus Frieden" at the Landau campus.

In our podcast, we address various topics related to peace and interview people from different areas, also in English. The podcast can be found on and other podcast platforms. The scope of work is 6-8 hours per week (to be agreed in the interview). Since editing and putting the recordings online will take up most of the time and there will therefore be peak times, the working hours will not be evenly distributed. The working hours can be arranged very flexibly by arrangement.

Your main tasks:

• Audio editing of recordings using or another program if necessary;

• Using to create simple logos for our podcast;

• Publishing and promoting the podcast on social media (Instagram and possibly other platforms) and formulating texts;

• Communication such as inquiries, agreements or finding appointments with potential interview partners as well as research work on thematic backgrounds;

• Presence at the Landau campus is not necessary, work can be done remotely.

Your profile:

• You are studying in the field of political science, peace and conflict research or in a related social science, economics or humanities degree program with an affinity for peace and/or media;

• You have a very good command of written and spoken German and English;

• You are used to working in a team and independently;

• You are highly precise, systematic and reliable;

• You are social media-savvy and have experience in using social media for public relations;

• Interest in and enjoy communicating with interview partners and the topic of peace;

• Ideally, experience with the tools mentioned or interest in familiarizing yourself with them;

• Applicants must be enrolled in a degree program at a German university. Unfortunately, students who already have a Master's degree cannot be considered;

• You are interested in long-term employment.

Date of appointment: 15.04.2025
Working hours: 6-8 hours per week (by arrangement)
Application deadline: 24.02.2025

Interviews: in week 10/11 (March 4-14)

You can expect a varied job in a collegial team and a friendly atmosphere.

The Peace Academy RLP aims to promote the diversity of its members and takes into account the skills they bring with them, e.g. due to their age or origin. Applications from suitable severely disabled persons and persons of equal status within the meaning of § 2 Para. 3 SGB IX are expressly welcome.

Please send applications in electronic form only to Christopher Rohles(c.rohles[at]rptu.de). In addition to an informative cover letter (maximum one page), your application should include the following documents and papers: CV (maximum two pages), high school diploma, Bachelor's certificate if applicable. We also ask you to create a sample announcement post for one of our previously released episodes (see Spotify) for Instagram to promote it online. Please summarize your documents in one file. If you have any questions, please contact Christopher Rohles(c.rohles[at]rptu.de).

Data protection destruction after completion of the procedure is guaranteed. We will not send a confirmation of receipt, only information about the result of the recruitment process.

You can listen to the interview here:

The Working Group (WG) Human Geography at the Rhineland-Palatinate University of Technology researches and teaches on human-environment interactions, in particular on environmental and resource conflicts. The Human Geography working group cooperates closely with the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate and other institutions at º£½ÇÖ±²¥.

Details on the call for applications can be found at

Janpeter Schilling

In the numerous obituaries for Klaus Töpfer, he is described as "the CDU's bad green conscience" (Spiegel), "who didn't warm to the Saarlanders" (Rheinpfalz) or as the "mischievous CDU man with a kiss on the hand and a beer" (Die Zeit). Attributions such as "pioneer", "thought leader", "admonisher" and "authority" are repeated. His swimming across the Rhine in 1988 as Federal Environment Minister rarely goes unmentioned. Everyone seems to agree that he stood up for "the environment and posterity" (taz) like hardly any other politician, and did so with a great deal of humor.

I got to know Klaus Töpfer in December 2016. As part of the inaugural lecture of my Klaus Töpfer Endowed Junior Professorship for Land Use Conflicts at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Töpfer gave a speech on sustainability in the Anthropocene. The event took place at Hambach Castle near Neustadt an der Weinstraße. To reach the castle, the guests had to fight their way up the mountain through thick fog. "The only thing missing was that you had to kill a dragon," commented Töpfer on the setting. There is no doubt that Töpfer was a humorous man and a gifted speaker. However, he was not only committed to environmental protection and sustainability, but also to peaceful coexistence and social cohesion. It was particularly important to him to think about the health of the environment and people together. Today, we know that a pure fixation on ever more growth is detrimental to the planet and thus to the basis of our existence. Töpfer already knew this decades ago. He has campaigned for sustainable future prospects like no other. This last became clear to me in November 2023, when Töpfer expressed great concern about the state of the world at an event to mark his 85th birthday and also voiced clear criticism of his own party - at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Academy, mind you.

Since his speech at Hambach Castle, we have remained in constant contact and discussed current developments. I greatly appreciated his differentiated and analytical perspective. I would particularly like to thank Klaus Töpfer for his support of the Rhineland-Palatinate Peace Academy and also - very personally - for his support of my career. In Klaus Töpfer, we are losing a personality who worked passionately and at the same time empathetically and humorously for a more sustainable world. Töpfer was also concerned about the increasing popularity of anti-democratic forces. Klaus Töpfer died on June 8, 2024, the next day the AfD won the second most votes in the European elections.

The participants dealt intensively with various forms of power relations in the context of ethnographic research and examined them from a moral, political and emotional perspective. In addition to the reasons for power asymmetries, the responsibility of researchers to reflect on imbalances and, at best, counteract them was discussed. Christopher Rohles took part in the workshop as we are dealing with power asymmetries in our research process as part of the Peace Academy's research project "Tug of War - Customary and State Actors in Land Reform and their Impact on Human Security in Post-Conflict Societies". He shared his experiences with power imbalances during his research stay in the Global South and brings new food for thought and insights to Landau.

Information on the program:

Information on the DVPW:

This conference aims to critically look at land governance changes with a special focus on sustainability and climate change, inclusivity and gender equality, land contestation, and related (future) challenges. We welcome scholars and young academics from various disciplines, including political science, geography, peace and conflict studies, anthropology, agricultural studies, and related fields, to join us in fostering knowledge exchange and vibrant discussions. Please find more detailed information in the program attached.

The conference is organized by Anne Hennings and Christopher Rohles in the context of the project "Tug of War - Customary and State Actors in Land Reform and their Impact on Human Security in Post-Conflict Societies“.

Please register using the form at the bottom of our conference website until 3 May, 2024. If you have any questions contact us via e-mail tugofwar[at]projects.rptu.de.

Please note that travel and accommodation costs, as well as the meals need to be covered by the participants.

You can find further information here.

We look forward to you joining our conference and engaging discussions!

The Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research (AFK e.V.) is looking for a committed student assistant (f/m/d) with above-average performance to start as soon as possible. The tasks include supporting the management with administrative tasks, preparing and organizing events and evaluating specialist literature. The AFK office is located at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate at the º£½ÇÖ±²¥ University Kaiserslautern-Landau, Landau. The student assistant is needed in Landau.

Your main tasks:
Support with
- general administrative tasks of the office
- member management of the AFK
- preparation and implementation of events (especially the annual colloquium)
- public relations and networking
- evaluation of specialist literature

Your profile:
- You have a good or even very good Bachelor's degree, preferably in political science, peace and conflict studies, education, sociology, ethnology, geography or a related degree program with a recognizable focus on peace and conflict studies.
- You are interested in peace and conflict research topics
- You are interested in event management
- You are familiar with common software applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
- You have a very good command of written and spoken German and English
- You are able to work independently and autonomously
- You have very good analytical and methodological skills
- You are used to working in a team and on your own initiative;
- You are highly precise, systematic and reliable in your work;
- Applicants must be enrolled in a degree program at a German university. Unfortunately, students who already hold a Master's degree cannot be considered.

Date of appointment: 01.05.2024
Contract duration: initially for one year, an extension of up to 24 months will be sought
Working hours: 8 hours per week
Application deadline: 19.02.2024, interviews will take place between 26.02. and 01.03.2024.

You can expect a varied job in a collegial team and in a friendly atmosphere.
The Peace Academy RLP pursues the goal of promoting the diversity of its members and takes into account the skills they bring with them, e.g. due to their age or origin. Applications from suitable severely disabled persons and persons of equal status within the meaning of § 2 Para. 3 SGB IX are expressly welcome.
Please send applications in electronic form only to Dr. Samantha Ruppel and Victoria Scheyer (afk-gf@afk-web.de). In addition to an informative cover letter, your application should include the following documents and papers: CV, university degree certificate. Please summarize your documents in one file. We guarantee that your documents will be destroyed in accordance with data protection regulations once the process has been completed. We do not send a confirmation of receipt, only information about the result of the recruitment process.

In future, you can of course follow our work on our website, as well as on our new LinkedIn account!

The conference is organized by Anne Hennings and Christopher Rohles in the context of the project "Tug of War - Customary and State Actors in Land Reform and their Impact on Human Security in Post-Conflict Societies“. We kindly invite scholars and young academics from various disciplines including political science, geography, peace and conflict studies, anthropology, agricultural studies, and related fields to contribute their empirical and conceptual findings.

Please submit your abstract (max. 250 words) or propose panel sessions (max. 350 words + 4 paper abstracts) as well as a short bio of every author by 1 December 2023. Submissions should be sent to tugofwar@projects.rptu.de. For further information, please visit our conference website or write us an email.

a student assistant at the Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate
as of September 1, 2023

The Peace Academy Rhineland-Palatinate at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau is looking for a student assistant (m/f/d) to work on the podcast "Fokus Frieden" at the Landau campus.

In our podcast, we address various topics related to peace and interview people from different areas, also in English. The podcast can be found on and other podcast platforms. The scope of work is 6-8 hours per week (to be agreed in the interview). Since editing and putting the recordings online will take up most of the time and there will therefore be peak times, the working hours will not be evenly distributed. The working hours can be arranged very flexibly by arrangement.

Your main tasks:

• Communication, such as inquiries, arrangements or finding appointments with potential interview partners* as well as research work on thematic backgrounds;
• Using to create simple logos for our podcast;
• Audio editing of the recordings with ;
• Working with MS Office;
• Publishing the podcast on social media (Twitter and possibly other platforms) and formulating texts for social media;
• Presence at the Landau campus is not necessary, as the work can be done remotely.

Your profile:

• You are studying in the field of political science, peace and conflict studies or in a related social science, economics or humanities degree program with an affinity for peace and/or media;
• You have a very good command of written and spoken English and German;
• You are used to working in a team and independently;
• You are highly precise, systematic and reliable;
• You are social media-savvy and have experience in using social media for public relations;
• Interest in and enjoy communicating with interview partners and the topic of peace;
• Ideally, experience with the tools mentioned or interest in familiarizing yourself with them;
• Applicants must be enrolled in a degree program at a German university. Unfortunately, students who already have a Master's degree cannot be considered.

Appointment date: 01.09.2023
Working hours: 6-8 hours per week (by arrangement)
Application deadline: 30.07.2023

Interviews: in the 32nd week (August 7-11)

You can expect a varied job in a collegial team and in a friendly atmosphere.

The Peace Academy RLP aims to promote the diversity of its members and takes into account the skills they bring with them, e.g. due to their age or origin. Applications from suitable severely disabled persons and persons of equal status within the meaning of § 2 Para. 3 SGB IX are expressly welcome.

Please send applications in electronic form only to Christopher Rohles(c.rohles[at]rptu.de). In addition to an informative cover letter (maximum one page), your application should include the following documents and papers: CV (maximum two pages), high school diploma, Bachelor's certificate if applicable. In addition, we ask you to create an exemplary announcement tweet of one of our already released episodes (see Spotify) for Twitter to promote it online. Please summarize your documents in one file. If you have any questions, please contact Christopher Rohles(c.rohles[at]rptu.de).

Destruction under data protection law after completion of the procedure is guaranteed. We will not send a confirmation of receipt, only information about the result of the recruitment process.