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Here we regularly inform you about current activities and projects. You will find out where we have been active, which events we have taken part in and which topics are currently of interest to us.

We hope you enjoy reading and discovering!

Invitation

Disability tends to be perceived as a serious matter across cultures, but comic portrayals of people with disabilities have always been found. Nevertheless, there has been virtually no theoretically and methodologically sound examination of the topic of "comedy and disability" to date.

Yet the question of the conditions under which comic portrayals of disability promote positive images of people with disabilities is more topical than ever in light of the 2006 UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and in the context of inclusion. If comedy and the laughter associated with it are seen as a human reaction to impairments of possibilities for action and to violations of norms, the ambivalent potential of comedy for the topic of disability becomes immediately clear: the community can laugh at or with the people affected because of or despite their disability.

In order to work on and further develop this topic, a network Comedy and Disability has been founded under the leadership of Prof Dr Susanne Hartwig, University of Passau, and with funding from the DFG. The network is made up of representatives from social, educational, literary, cultural, media, theatre and film studies as well as guests who are affected by disability, have a special artistic approach to people with disabilities or are relatives of people with disabilities.

In the session on 3 June 2026, the event on "Participatory perspectives on comedy and disability" will take place in order to include people with disabilities in the discussion of comedy and disability, who form an elementary part of the emerging laughter communities and sometimes also the group of the laughed at. Together with people with experiences of disability, a panel discussion will take place based on video recordings, in which it will be emphasised why participatory perspectives on comedy and disability represent an ethically necessary and epistemically relevant focus.

The event will take place online.

An e-learning room has been set up. You can access the documents for the lecture by registering as a guest: https://elearning.thws.de/course/view.php?id=32399.

Flyer

On 16 December 2026, Målin Wiesner will be a guest in the course"Special and Rehabilitation Education of Life Stages" and give a lecture on the topic of "Inclusive Living and Working". Målin has Down's syndrome. As a child, Målin attended an inclusive kindergarten and went to an inclusive class at a Montessori primary school from the age of 7. Later, she continued her education at an integrated comprehensive school. Today, Målin lives independently in a shared flat and works in inclusive businesses. In the lecture, Målin will give an insight into the reality of her life, her experiences and highlight the opportunities of inclusion and social barriers.

The lecture will take place at 12.15 pm in room 112 (Johann-Justus-Weg).

All interested parties are cordially invited!

In the project, educational processes of pupils with a special educational focus on intellectual development are examined using phenomenological vignette research and made fruitful for didactics. The project is funded by the EWE Foundation. As part of the project, workshops will be held with practitioners. The workshops are sponsored by the Universitätsgesellschaft Oldenburg.

Dr Theresa Stommel, deputy professor at the Institute of Special Needs Education and Rehabilitation at the University of Oldenburg, has been awarded the prestigious Dissertation Prize of the Special Needs Education Section of the German Educational Research Association (DGfE). The award ceremony took place at this year's section conference in Heidelberg.

Her dissertation entitled "Bildung und Staunen. An educational-philosophical perspective in the context of mental and severe disabilities". In her work, Dr Stommel opens up innovative perspectives on the philosophy of education, which, against the background of a phenomenological mindset, make wonder appear as a central dimension of educational processes, which proves to be particularly fruitful for people with intellectual disabilities. Following on from this, Dr Stommel presents approaches to wonder-friendly teaching and transfers her findings from educational philosophy to didactics. The work thus makes an important contribution to the theoretical foundation and further development of the concept of education and builds a bridge between special education and general educational theory.

Dr Stommel received her doctorate from the University of Cologne in 2022. Her dissertation was published by Transcript Verlag in 2023 and is freely available in open access: To the publication.

Click here for the laudation.

In the winter semester 2025/2026, Dr. Theresa Stommel will take over the administration of the professorship for Didactics and Methodology of Inclusive Teaching in Secondary Education. We would like to thank her for this and wish her a good start!