Lecture Series

~Waves~ Interdisciplinary Dialogue in the Research Focus Point on Ocean, Polar and Climate Sciences at University of Bremen

Hybrid Lecture Series: Every second Tuesday, 18:15–20:00 hours, Rotunde, Cartesium, University of Bremen

For the first time, this lecture series is intended to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion on the oceans - or more precisely on the topic of “waves” - across all faculties at the University of Bremen. The wave can be examined from many perspectives. Oceanography, meteorology and mathematics, for example, show how the interaction of turbulence, waves and eddies in the ocean and the atmosphere help to determine the Earth's climate and temperature. Our climatic future is measured in waves of different sizes, speeds and orders, in tsunamis, rogue waves or regular waves.

But in addition to measurements, computer simulations and future forecasts in ocean wave science, waves can also be understood in other ways. For example, economics and sociology are familiar with wave-like phenomena. Art is full of iconic depictions of waves, from the paintings of Rembrandt, who depicted “Christ in a Storm” on a huge wave in 1633, to the famous TheGreat Wave of Kanagawa by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Then, of course, there are waves of a completely different kind: sound waves, gravitational waves, electromagnetic waves, or even the wave as an aquatic metaphor for political movements and literary and cinematic trends.

This lecture series aims to shed light on different aspects of waves and thus bring our disciplines into conversation with each other. How do we measure, describe, understand and comprehend waves in the various disciplines? And where and how do interdisciplinary interferences and points of contact arise?

Organisation: Kerstin Knopf (department 10), Andrea Muehlebach (department 9)

The lecture series takes place in a hybrid format in German and English. To request online access, please contactnoellenprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de.

Dates

12.11.2024: 

Stefan Helmreich (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)): Inaugural Lecture: A Book of Waves: Ocean Waves, Ocean Science, Ocean Media.

26.11.2024:

Johannes Kiefer (Fachbereich 4): Technische Thermodynamik: Welleninterferenz – von der Badewanne bis ins Optiklabor

Kerstin Knopf (Fachbereich 10): North American and Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies: Fluten und Wellen in Amerikanischer Literatur

3.12.2024:

Alice Lefebvre (Fachbereich 5 und MARUM): Sediment waves in rivers and estuaries: What underwater dunes tell us about water currents and sand transport, and how can we manage them?

Raimund Bleischwitz (Fachbereich 8 und ZMT): Wellenreiten für den Klimaschutz – Bausteine einer Theorie des Wandels und zur Rolle der Politik

17.12.2024:

Andreas Rademacher (Fachbereich 3): Mathematical Models of Waves and their Analysis

Jana Jürgs (Fachbereich 10): Germanistische Mediavistik: Wellen sind weiblich – Undine und ihre Schwestern

7.1.2025: 

Elda Miramontes García (Fachbereich 5 und MARUM): Brandung in der Tiefsee

Torben Klarl (Fachbereich 7): (Lange) Wellen in der Ökonomik

21.1.2025: 

Marie Fujitani (Fachbereich 8 und ZMT): Waves to and from our shores: reflecting on the future of coastal tourism

Sarina Niedzwiedz (Fachbereich 2): Die Folgen mariner Hitzewellen auf Kelpwald-Gemeinschaften

28.1.2025

Till Markus (Fachbereich 6 und Helmholtz-Zentrum Leipzig für Umweltforschung): Titel TBD

Andrea Muehlebach (Fachbereich 9): Haben Wellen Rechte?

Blue Humanities: Histories, Cultures, Literatures, Media

Lecture Series 2023/2024

The lecture series, organized by Prof. Dr. Kerstin Knopf and Dr. Paula von Gleich, tied together ideas and knowledges in the new burgeoning field of Blue Humanities, now also established at FB 10, U Bremen. This new research field studies oceans, rivers, and coastal areas in terms of (colonial) histories and modernities, migration and travel, sustainability and ecological issues, circulation of people and ideas, marine and Indigenous knowledges, literature and cultures, new geographies, extractivism, energy and economic issues, among others. For this lecture series we invited experts and emerging scholars in this field who gave talks on postcolonial sea fiction, Arab Blue Humanities, refugee literature, environmental destruction, lack of water, the Black Atlantic, legal status of rivers, marine anthropology and more. A selection of the lectures can be watched here.

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