Dear members of the UdK Berlin,

With the start of the winter semester, we warmly invite you to take part in a diverse series of workshops and events on anti-discrimination, empowerment, and diversity.

The program includes workshops on anti-racist approaches in theatre contexts, trauma and retraumatization in working with students with refugee or migration experience, dealing with the far right, as well as on audism, ableism, and critical whiteness.

We would also like to draw your attention to the Blackademia Study and Scholarship Fair, organized in cooperation with EOTO e.V. and the Black Student Union, which provides a platform for Black, African, and Afro-diasporic students to connect, exchange, and network.

Lastly we invite you to attend the conference “Institutional (Self-)Critique: On Art, Teaching, and Caring in Times of Urgency”, which focuses on responsibility, memory, and care in art and teaching in times of social crisis. We have invited guests from different backgrounds who address these questions in their work and research.

These events offer space for reflection and collective learning, aiming to further strengthen anti-discriminatory perspectives at the UdK Berlin.

Unless otherwise stated, the workshops and events are open to both students and staff of the UdK Berlin.

Participation in the workshops is only possible with prior registration. Please note that the number of places is limited – early registration is therefore recommended.
Register via e-mail at: antidis_ @udk-berlin.de

We look forward to welcoming you!

Racism and Critique of Racism in the Theatre Context
for the Acting Study Programme
Date and place: 22 October, 10:00–17:00 | Room 529, Einsteinufer 43–53, 10587 Berlin
Accessibility: The room is wheelchair accessible.
Who should attend? This workshop is aimed at interested students and staff members of the Acting programme.
Language: German spoken language.

Facilitator: Leyla Ercan (M.A. in English and American Studies, German Studies and Social Psychology) works as a cultural manager and consultant, lecturer, and university instructor. Her main areas of expertise are: organisational opening and change processes, diversity development, inclusion, critical cultural practices in cultural institutions, human rights and democracy education, and empowerment for Women of Color. Most recently, she was responsible for diversity development in programming, audience, and staff at the State Theatre of Lower Saxony in Hanover.

Raising Awareness about Trauma and Retraumatization in Working with Students with Refugee or Migration Experiences
Date and place: 6 November, 12:00–15:00 | Room 411, Einsteinufer 43–53, 10587 Berlin
Accessibility: The room is wheelchair accessible.
Who should attend? The workshop is aimed at interested staff members of UdK Berlin. If places remain available, these may be allocated to interested students.
Language: German spoken language.

Content: This workshop is intended for people working in a university context with students who have migration and/or refugee experiences. We will discuss theoretical foundations and definitions, as well as the differentiation between trauma and general challenges students face, and address the needs of participants. In addition, we will present resources for diversity-sensitive interaction and case studies for practical implementation and reflection.

Facilitators: Ritva Grießig (M.Sc. Psychologist) and Julie Piesbergen (M.A. Psychologist).

Recognising and Responding to the Extreme Right
in cooperation with the Office for Staff Development
Date and place: 10 November, 9:00–12:30 | Room 529, Einsteinufer 43–53, 10587 Berlin
Accessibility: The room is wheelchair accessible.
Who should attend? The workshop is aimed at interested staff members of UdK Berlin.
Language: German spoken language.

Content: The workshop will address the following topics in the context of the “extreme right”:
• Overview of right-wing extremist and National Socialist symbols, signs, and codes
• Assessment: when is a symbol relevant under criminal law?
• Strategies for safe and appropriate action depending on the situation
• Exchange of experiences and practical examples

Facilitator: Kribi Kollektiv is a Berlin-based collective for political and cultural education. It consists of educators, artists, political scientists, and sociologists with many years of experience in youth and adult political education as well as in various initiatives and social movements. The collective works with a diversity- and bias-aware approach and employs age-appropriate methods and concepts.

For this workshop, we look forward to receiving your registration by 04 November 2025 after prior consultation with your supervisor at weiterbildung-zuv_ @intra.udk-berlin.de

“Not Only Accessible, but Power-Critical” – Reflection and Room for Action on Audism and Ableism
Date and place: 28 January, 10:00–13:00 | Room 340, Bundesallee 1–12, 10719 Berlin
Accessibility: The room is wheelchair accessible.
Who should attend? This workshop is aimed at interested students and staff members of UdK Berlin.
Language: German spoken and sign language.

Content: Audism refers to the discrimination of Deaf* people. It is based on the assumption that hearing and speaking are superior and that Deaf* people are “defective.” Many hearing people hold the belief that a life without hearing is of lesser value. As a result, Deaf* communities and sign languages continue to be discriminated against and marginalised, often regarded as inferior.

The workshop will cover the following topics:

• Power-critical introduction to Audism, Ableism, and Linguicism
• Reflection for staff members
• Strategies for power- and discrimination-critical learning and transformation processes within UdK

Facilitator: Silvia Gegenfurtner (no pronouns) lives and works in Berlin and identifies as Deaf*, queer, and white. Silvia is a social worker with a Master’s degree in Critical Diversity and Community Studies.
Silvia’s work focuses on social power relations and inequalities, examined from the perspectives of various marginalised communities. Based on this approach, Silvia designs and leads seminars for diverse groups that are power- and discrimination-critical.

Critical Whiteness
Date and place: 21 January, 16:00–20:00 | Room 340, Bundesallee 1–12, 10719 Berlin
Accessibility: The room is wheelchair accessible.
Who should attend? This workshop is aimed at interested students and staff members of UdK Berlin.
Exclusively for white people (without personal experiences of racism) who wish to critically engage with their own power positioning as white individuals.
Language: German spoken language.

Content: For white people, whiteness and belonging to the majority often appear “normal” and unremarkable, and are therefore usually not named. At the same time, white people benefit from racism and sustain racist structures — even without intending to.

Participants will engage in exercises and short inputs in plenary and small groups, exploring the following questions:

• What is racism?
• What role do I play within a society shaped by racism?
• What are white privileges, and which privileges do I personally hold?
• How can I better recognise and unlearn my racist thinking and behaviour as a white person?

Facilitator: Aşkın-Hayat Doğan (he/him) works as a diversity and empowerment trainer, sensitivity reader, and author. His work focuses on feminism, Islamophobia, queerness, gender, and racism.
Through his workshops, he advocates for more discrimination-sensitive environments and hosts the monthly Twitch talk “Diverser Lesen mit Ask” (“Reading More Diversely with Ask”)

Blackademia – The Black Study and Scholarship Fair
in cooperation with EOTO e.V. and the Black Student Union

Date and place: 8 November, 9:30–17:00 | Hardenbergstraße 33, 10623 Berlin
Accessibility: The venue is wheelchair accessible. Childcare will be available on site.
Who should attend? The fair is aimed at Black / African / Afro-diasporic prospective and current students in Berlin.
Language: German spoken and sign language; whispered English translation.

Content: Students and prospective students of African and Afro-diasporic descent will have the opportunity to engage with various scholarship foundations, receive answers to questions about studying, financing, and career planning, and exchange experiences in open spaces on study organisation, application processes for non-German students, and more.

Come by. Join the conversation. Connect.

Registration via Eventbrite: https://eoto-archiv.de/neuigkeiten/kompad-blackademia-die-schwarze-studien-und-stipendienmesse-2025

Institutional (Self-)Critique: On Art, Teaching, and Caring in Times of Urgency 
Date and place: 27.November from 13:30 to 20:00, Medienhaus Aula, Grunewaldstraße 2-5, 10823 Berlin
Who should attend? The conference is open to all interested.
Accesibility: The event venue is barrier-free. The building is close to the subway station Kleistpark (U7), which has an elevator, and to the bus stops at Kleistpark with numerous bus lines. There is a barrier-free all-gender toilet in the rear building. The key is available at our information desk.
Please let us know your access needs: antidis_ @udk-berlin.de. 
Language: German & English spoken language

Content: The campus is a fantasy and a media trope – this is how Samuel P. Catlin recently described the state of US universities. Art schools in Berlin are fantasies and fictions too. They aspire to ideals of creativity, community, and talent. As a media trope the art school has become subject of scandal and defamation, exposed to constant monitoring from inside and outside. Instead of imagining the art school as detached site, we can see it as a place that actively acknowledges its entanglement with the world — where art not only connects people but also questions, intervenes, and engages with conflict. 

What does producing art, teaching, and caring mean in times of urgency? How can we reflect critically on mass murder, systemetic violence, and the increasing power of the far right? On racism, antisemtism, and the German memory culture? Do we understand how the logic of fear and hate, of cancellations and complicity works? And how are we part of this logic? What has the institution failed to do? What criticism, what self-criticism must we practice? How can we defend academic and artistic freedom, or has this freedom been a fantasy? 

We have invited artists and theorists from different backgrounds who discuss these questions in their art, research, and/or institutional work.

Concept and Organisation: Alejandra Nieves Camacho, Kathrin Peters, Lottie Sebes

Program: 

13:30 - 13:50
Welcome and Introduction 

13:50 – 15:50
Workshop: In-/security – How and for whom? Vulnerabilities, anti-discrimination and political conflict in academic institutions in the aftermath of 10/7
Teresa Koloma Beck, Sociology
Helmut Schmidt University / Bundeswehr University Hamburg

Introduction and Moderation: Alejandra Nieves Camacho, UdK Berlin

15.50 – 16.15 Break

16:15 – 18:00
Panel 1: Film and the Question of Memory

Nahed Awwad, Filmmaker and Curator
Art in Context, UdK Berlin
Preserving Memory Amid Erasure

Pary el-Qalqili, Writer and Filmmaker
Fellow Berliner Förderprogramm Künstlerische Forschung
Disobedient Memory

Aurélia Kalisky, Cultural Studies/Comparative Literature
Centre Marc Bloch Berlin
For a Cinema that Bears Witness

Introduction and Moderation: Kathrin Peters, UdK Berlin 

18:00–18:30 Break

18:30–20:00
Panel 2: Sound Perspectives 

Pedro Oliveira, Artist and Researcher
Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, UdK Berlin 
Exercises in "Postura"

Eran Schaerf, Artist and Writer
Student Strike and Amateur Reading

Introduction and Moderation: Lottie Sebes, UdK Berlin