Who we are
Our research project is being carried out by: DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Grenzenlos Digital e. V., University of Hildesheim and the vhs Hildesheim
Our team
Dr. Tamara Heck
Her research focuses on information infrastructures and information behavior, as well as Open Science and Open Educational Practices in educational research. She is a board member of the German Society for Information and Knowledge (DGI) and a member of the Open Science Strategy Forum of the Leibniz Association.
Kimberly Sommer
Kimberly Sommer is an educational scientist specializing in intersectional structures of discrimination. Her work focuses on science communication and the design and development of digital learning and educational resources.
Marc Sparhuber
He is a PhD candidate working on the project and is responsible for quantitative and computer-aided analyses. He has an interdisciplinary background in computational social science. His research interests include misinformation and disinformation, mental health, and open science. Methodologically, he is interested in natural language processing and network analysis.
Dr. Juliane Stiller
Grenzenlos Digital eV
She is an information scientist and board member at Grenzenlos Digital e. V. Her research focuses on digital and information literacy, the evaluation of information systems for digital cultural heritage, and metadata quality.
Dr. Violeta Trkulja
Grenzenlos Digital eV
She is an information scientist whose research focuses on the digital inclusion of diverse groups of people, and she is an expert in information literacy and knowledge organization. She is the vice chair of Grenzenlos Digital eV.
Prof. Dr. Beatrix Kreß
University of Hildesheim
Beatrix Kreß is a linguist at the Institute for Intercultural Communication. Her research focuses on multilingualism, political and media communication from a linguistic perspective, with a particular emphasis on understanding processes in socially sensitive contexts.
Dr. Dariia Orobchuk
University of Hildesheim
She is a research associate at the Institute for Intercultural Communication. Her research focuses on multilingualism, media linguistics, language didactics, and refugee and migration studies.
Dr. Jana Dietzel
University of Hildesheim
She is a linguist and works at the Institute for Intercultural Communication at the University of Hildesheim. Her research focuses on science communication, cognitive linguistics, text linguistics, and variation linguistics.
Sharleen Frankenstein
University of Hildesheim
Is a research associate at the Institute for Information Science and Language Technology. As a library and information scientist, her focus is on teaching media and information literacy.
Prof. Dr. Joachim Griesbaum
University of Hildesheim
His research focuses on information behavior and the promotion of information literacy. He is a member of the "Intercultural Perspectives on Information Literacy" (IPILM) initiative and the Information Literacy working group of KIBA.
Katrin Denhard
Hildesheim Adult Education Center
Head of Projects and Fundraising at the Hildesheim Adult Education Center (vhs Hildesheim). She designs and oversees projects for various target groups. The focus is primarily on immigrants and older people, as well as on German as a second language, (labor market) integration, political education, and media literacy.
Yelda Balkuv, MA
Hildesheim Adult Education Center
She works in the field of language, education, and social understanding. She brings a background in linguistics and communication studies as well as many years of experience in the conception and implementation of educational projects. Her work combines democratic education and nonviolent communication with an attitude characterized by mindfulness, equality, humanity, and authenticity.
Participating institutions
The staff of the Information Management department at DIPF conducts research on information infrastructures and information behavior, as well as open science and teaching in educational research and related disciplines. The findings inform the infrastructure development and expansion of the services offered by the Information Center for Education. The focus areas include information search and information behavior, open science, open educational resources (OER), open educational practices, research syntheses, and knowledge transfer.
Grenzenlos Digital e. V. is a non-profit organization based in Berlin. The organization promotes digital skills as a key to social participation and researches how digital challenges – such as those arising from disinformation or structural barriers to access – can be identified, understood, and overcome. Its focus is on three central themes: digital justice, digital competence, and digital resilience.
As a civil society organization, Grenzenlos Digital serves as a link to society within the project. With its experience in supporting educational projects, the association ensures the project's application-oriented and practical relevance. It is responsible for researching the recipient side and manages science communication and the societal transfer of project results.
The University of Hildesheim is represented in the project by two institutes:
The Institute for Intercultural Communication represents an applied linguistic and cultural studies perspective. The focus of teaching and research is on communication processes in contexts of interculturality and multilingualism, the analysis of cultural contact phenomena, and the role of German as a second and foreign language in an increasingly multicultural society.
The Institute for Information Science and Language Technology focuses its research and teaching on information retrieval, human-computer interaction, information behavior and information literacy, as well as language technology and computational linguistics. In the area of information literacy, the institute has conducted projects such as DILRA (Information Literacy in Rural Areas) and IDE (Information Literacy and Democracy), which investigate the competencies citizens need for digital transformation and political opinion formation. The institute is part of the Knowledge Lab Information Literacy & Accessibility (KILA).
The VHS Hildesheim is a public, non-partisan, and non-denominational adult education and training institution. As an education and advisory center, it focuses on the everyday needs of people in the region and understands education as a contribution to responsibility, participation, and lifelong learning.
It is a reliable, familiar place that stands for safety, hope, courage and optimism in socially challenging times and makes a continuous contribution to breaking down stereotypes, prejudices and discriminatory and racist structures.
In this way, the VHS Hildesheim strengthens social orientation, access to education, and democratic participation at the local level. In this project, it contributes in particular its many years of experience in language education, as well as its regional network and practical expertise.
Through its content and expertise in these areas, it reaches both newcomers in the orientation phase as its central target group, as well as lecturers and program directors as important multipliers. In doing so, it supports a practical implementation and sustainable anchoring of key project content and objectives.
Advisory Board
In DeMuKo, we are committed to working with migrants and adult education teachers at Volkshochschulen (VHS) in a transparent, mindful and respectful way. This applies to the participants in our studies as well as to everyone we collaborate with in the project. For this reason, our work is accompanied by an Advisory Board that provides external feedback from different perspectives: from academia, from teaching practice, and from people with a history of migration. We report to the Board regularly on the progress of our work and ask for its feedback. Its members can inquire about our work and processes at any time and offer advice when we face challenging situations. We are grateful for the support of:
Alice Salomon University Berlin, focus area “Selfcare as Basis for Worldcare”
Lawyer and Chairwoman of FÖTEV-Nds e.V. : Federation of Turkish Parents' Associations in Lower Saxony
Adult education center lecturers specializing in German as a Foreign Language (DaF) and German as a Second Language (DaZ) as well as integration and democracy at the Leine Adult Education Center in Laatzen.
Teacher and educator, head of the association “Wir schaffen das – German-Syrian Women’s Association” and doctoral candidate in the field of the history of the ancient Orient (University of Damascus).