The StuKo depart­ment for polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion is back – Pol.B!

We will offer reg­u­lar exchange on inter­na­tion­al polit­i­cal top­ics, talks, films and small edu­ca­tion­al trips in Thuringia from the next term on.

We are an open group and would love to grow with peo­ple who would like to par­tic­i­pate and fill the depart­ment with activities!

We would also love pro­fes­sors who treat polit­i­cal issues to inform us about their lec­tures, sem­i­nars, talks!

Open meet­ings are cur­rent­ly held each tues­day, 8pm, in Stuko-Office at M18. (might be sub­ject to change)

Infor­ma­tion on changes and activ­i­ties can be found on our home­page (under con­struc­tion): https://polb.bau-ha.us
or just shoot us a mail: pol.b@m18.uni-weimar.de

telegram chan­nel: t.me/refpolb
ins­ta: pol.b.uniweimar
twit­ter: @PoLB_BUW

Sub­scribe to our mailinglist!

Pol.B wants to con­tribute to polit­i­cal think­ing and empow­er­ment with­in Bauhaus Uni­ver­si­ty, and explic­it­ly con­sid­er the diver­si­ty of our Uni­ver­si­ty. We want to cre­ate a frame­work for polit­i­cal talks, work­shops, and oth­er activ­i­ties. We would like to build bridges between engaged peo­ple and show stu­dents ways to get involved with politics.

The name of Bauhaus which this uni­ver­si­ty adorns itself with is asso­ci­at­ed with moder­ni­ty and polit­i­cal pro­gres­sion since its his­tor­i­cal begin­nings. Dur­ing the third Reich Bauhaus stu­dents were per­se­cut­ed and mur­dered because of their polit­i­cal or aes­thet­i­cal views or out of racist or anti­se­mit­ic motives. Refugees and sur­vivors car­ried their ideas into exile and thus increased the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Bauhaus which brought us right in 2019 an inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed 100 anniver­sary year.

In the present time uni­ver­si­ties, intel­lec­tu­als, artists and cul­tur­al insti­tu­tions are more and more pres­sured by anti­de­mo­c­ra­t­ic move­ments – world­wide. Many stu­dents who cur­rent­ly would­n’t con­sid­er them­selves polit­i­cal, will have to edu­cate them­selves in pol­i­tics for the future, so that they can find their own posi­tion in a fast­ly chang­ing polit­i­cal land­scape. With­out peo­ple with a polit­i­cal con­science root­ed in the con­vic­tion of the dig­ni­ty of all human beings, this dig­ni­ty itself will be inevitably endangered.

This top­ic is extreme­ly rel­e­vant in Weimar – 30 per­cent of stu­dents in this small town are inter­na­tion­als. Inter­na­tion­als and stu­dents with ger­man pass­port would like to face cur­rent top­ics in sol­i­dar­i­ty – whether it means to shed light on polit­i­cal devel­op­ment in oth­er coun­tries or polit­i­cal dis­cours­es in ger­many – it would mean a lost poten­tial not to exchange polit­i­cal knowl­edge and expe­ri­ences in the effort for human dig­ni­ty and equal rights dur­ing the shared time at university.

Only togeth­er we can build an uni­ver­si­ty where stu­dents can work through work­shops, lec­tures, artis­tic ini­tia­tives in pro of polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion and diver­si­ty, human dig­ni­ty and solidarity.

Longterm goals:

• raise polit­i­cal aware­ness amongst students
• offer info-exchange in case of polit­i­cal events abroad and in germany
• reduce knowl­edge hier­ar­chies regard­ing polit­i­cal struc­tures in germany
• empow­er stu­dents — sup­port the reflec­tion of colo­nial­ist struc­tures and do anti-racism work at university
• raise equal rights and par­tic­i­pa­tion amongst all stu­dents, inde­pen­dent of pass­port or lan­guage abilities
• cre­ate inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty net­works beyond the time of stud­ies in weimar
• offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for unpo­lit­i­cal stu­dents to inform them­selves, form a polit­i­cal posi­tion and start polit­i­cal work
• estab­lish con­nec­tions to oth­er local insti­tu­tions for polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion with the goal of infor­ma­tion­al exchange or orga­ni­za­tion of spe­cif­ic workshops
• form net­works at uni­ver­si­ty that pro­tect the dig­ni­ty of all stu­dents and thus the free­dom of art, sci­ence and research
• occu­py space which could oth­er­wise eas­i­ly tak­en by anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic, racist, sex­ist, anti­se­mit­ic, homo­pho­bic, ableis­tic, clas­sist ideas
• gain dis­cur­sive tools to analyse, think, talk and dis­cuss about polit­i­cal matters
• share and gath­er infor­ma­tion regard­ing spe­cif­ic polit­i­cal con­texts and sit­u­a­tions around the world for a bet­ter under­stand­ing of glob­al pol­i­tics and inter­na­tion­al connections
• estab­lish polit­i­cal think­ing as part of the learn­ing cours­es where peo­ple can debate with­in the uni­ver­si­ty diverse cur­rent topics

Pos­si­ble spe­cif­ic activities:

• sup­port a broad­er col­lec­tion of eng­lish material
• search for mate­r­i­al for polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion and lec­ture at the uni­ver­si­ty library, com­pile read­ers, maybe sug­gest new book purchases
• work out an intro­duc­tion to the polit­i­cal land­scape in ger­many and cur­rent dis­cours­es for inter­est­ed peo­ple in the begin­ning of the term
• com­mu­ni­cate the polit­i­cal uni­ver­si­ty land­scape visu­al­ly in dif­fer­ent lan­guages in order to facil­i­tate engagement
• orga­nize workhshops with stu­dents, invit­ed inter­na­tion­al guests
• orga­nize trips to polit­i­cal events in Thuringia

and of course YOUR ideas we haven’t thought of yet!

Pol­i­tics and polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion only live through par­tic­i­pa­tion! So come by, get informed, join in…