Dr. Amrei Bahr, Junior Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Information at the University of Stuttgart since April 1, 2022, has been awarded the Communicator Prize 2022 for innovative and future-oriented science communication by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Stifterverband. As a member of a team at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, where she previously worked, she received the prize for the public philosophy project "denXte," which provides information about philosophy in a playful yet sophisticated way.
The “denXte” team, comprising Prof. Markus Schrenk, Dr. Amrei Bahr, Dr. David Löwenstein, Julia Frese, David Niemann, Christoph Sapp and Berit Weiß, uses a whole range of formats to engage philosophically with different audiences, including live chats, social media, videos, surveys and events. At the core of these formats are philosophical thought experiments, i.e. scenarios that serve to increase the plausibility of, or refute, philosophical assumptions, arguments and theories. For example, the project featured events on the topics of organ donation and "fake news." An event planned this year will address the question, "What would it be like to know your own future?" And short video clips also address current ethical issues, such as lockdown policies. In addition, five livestreams with live chat messages have also been organized so far. The team is currently preparing a podcast and the denXte Lab experimental lab.
"Science communication is a topic that will be very relevant for philosophy in the future, and it is also a topic that is very close to my heart. That's why I am so looking forward to the next phase of the denXte project at the University of Stuttgart, which will involve the Podcast miTgedacht. The podcast gives students the opportunity to learn and practice science communication skills during their course."
About Jun.Prof. Dr. Amrei Bahr
Amrei Bahr was appointed as Junior Professor of Philosophy of Technology & Information at the University of Stuttgart in April 2022. She received her PhD in 2017 from the University of Münster, where her thesis investigated authors' moral rights to their intellectual creations, she was a fellow of the research group "Ethics of Copying" at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research at Bielefeld University, and most recently a postdoc at the Institute of Philosophy at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
Amrei Bahr's research interests include applied ethics, artifact philosophy, aesthetics, and the philosophy of technology. She is currently working on an ethics of recycling, one of the central questions of which is whether recycling is really the best way of disposing of waste from an ethical point of view and the fairest way for all generations and countries. Her research on the ethics of academic publishing also focuses on questions of justice. She investigates how the academic publishing system must be changed to allow fair participation for all researchers. At the University of Stuttgart, she will continue her philosophical research, looking at socially pressing issues from an interdisciplinary and application-oriented perspective.
Furthermore, Amrei Bahr is involved in science communication and campaigns for fair working conditions in science. In this context, she initiated the Twitter campaign #IchBinHanna together with Kristin Eichhorn and Sebastian Kubon in June 2021.
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Jun.Prof. Dr. Amrei Bahr, , University of Stuttgart, Institute for Philosophy, E-Mail