Scientific contributions created in StuROPx
The research results of X-Student Research Groups and X-Tutorials are presented in a range of academic formats. These include poster presentations, talks at conferences and workshops, as well as publications in the form of scholarly articles and research reports addressed to an academic audience.
A selection of these academic contributions and publications from StuROPx projects can be found here.
Cover of the printed edition of the edited volume „Territorial Control“
Image Credit: Gerber/Verholen
Publikation „Territorial Control – Case Studies on European Borders“
This publication brings together various approaches to the topics of border space, architecture, technology, surveillance, and violence, The edited volume, published by Leander Nowack, brings together contributions that Nowack developed and discussed, among others, in collaboration with students as part of the X-Student Research Group “Mapping Governmental Architecture” at Technische Universität Berlin. From the introduction: „Architecture as a discipline is also involved when power monopolies and violent spatial orders are established through space itself. Recognizing these moments as architectural production and critically examining them, is a central concern of the works gathered in this book." This book is an open access publication. Order the book online via the publisher BooksPeoplePlaces, your local bookshop or find the full digital version at https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-24764
Further information on the X-Student Research Group:
Mapping Governmental Architecture: Border Hinterlands, Technische Universität Berlin
The speakers during their conference presentation in Leeuwarden, November 2024
Image Credit: Olga Olina
Conference presentation: “Mapping languages in urban settings: Approaches and challenges”
Linguistic diversity in metropolitan areas is under increasing pressure worldwide: while global languages are gaining prominence, many heritage and minority languages are at risk of disappearing. The presentation “Mapping languages in urban settings: Approaches and challenges” examined factors of language maintenance and language shift in urban contexts, using Berlin as a case study. The analysis was based on 26 interviews with speakers of 32 languages from diverse social and cultural backgrounds.
The presentation by Bastian Ilgner, Bruno Behling, and Olga Olina was delivered at the international conference Shaping Policy for Minority Languages and Multilingualism of the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, held on 7–8 November 2024 in Leeuwarden.
Further information on the X-Tutorial:
Metrolingualismus in Berlin: Verfall oder Veränderung der Muttersprachen, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg
Image Credit: Erich Westendarp/Pixbay
Academic article: “Human Rights Protection in Residence Law” (Zeitschrift für Ausländerrecht und Ausländerpolitik 08/2025
The article “Human Rights Protection in Residence Law: On the Significance of UN Committee and ECtHR Decisions in German Jurisprudence” examines the extent to which international human rights decisions are taken into account in German residence and migration law. The contribution was developed within an X-Student Research Group under the supervision of Katharina Stübinger. Based on a systematic analysis of more than 130 court decisions from 2023 and 2024, the article shows that decisions of the European Court of Human Rights as well as UN treaty bodies are still rarely cited and often only superficially considered in national jurisprudence.
Further information on the X-Student Research Group:
UN-Visible? International Decisions in Migration Law in National Jurisprudence”, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Research report “Democracy in Times of Crisis” in the form of a policy paper
Image Credit: Freie Universität Berlin
Research report / Policy paper: Demokratie im Krisenmodus: Parlamente in der Corona-Pandemie
The research report “Democracy in Times of Crisis: Parliaments during the Covid-19 pandemic” examines how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the working practices and functional logics of parliamentary institutions in Germany. As part of an X-Student Research Group, students developed and carried out independent research projects in the winter semester 2021/22 under the supervision of Dr. Antonios Souris, focusing on the Bundestag and the state parliaments. Designed as a policy paper, the report provides evidence-based analyses and concrete perspectives for action aimed at policymakers and an interested public. The report was published in 2022 and is available online via the repository of Freie Universität Berlin.
Further information on the X-Student Research Group:
Demokratie im Krisenmodus: Parlamente in der Corona-Pandemie, Freie Universität Berlin
Berlin apartment building
Image Credit: Karlheinz Pape / Pixaby
Edited volume contribution: Lucas-Andrés Elsner (et al.): “Living in someone else’s place. An exploration of subletting practices in Berlin in times of housing crisis”
Berlin is currently experiencing a severe crisis in the availability and affordability of housing. In this context, subletting has become a central way for newcomers to access the stressed housing market—frequently organised informally, circumventing German tenancy and registration law and often resulting in precarious living arrangements. The chapter examines different dimensions of subletting practices, including financial aspects, issues of tenancy security, spatial arrangements within flats, and the implications for tenants’ well-being. The analysis draws on interviews conducted in 2023 and 2024 with tenants about their entry into the Berlin housing market and the arrangements in which they have lived to date. The article was published in the edited volume Informal Housing in the Global North. Exploring Practices, Actors and Processes in a Transforming Housing System (ed. Jakub Galuszka, Routledge 2025).
Further information on the X-Student Research Group:
Navigating the housing crisis. Investigating informal housing arrangements in Berlin through biographies of newcomers, Technische Universität Berlin.
Poster “Labour Geographies in Academia” presented at the German Congress of Geography 2023
Image Credit: Stephan Liebscher
Poster presentation “Labour Geographies in Academia”
As part of the StuROPx project “Labour Geographies im Kontext akademischer Forschung und Lehre”, students together with the project lead Stephan Liebscher presented a poster at the “German Congress of Geography 2023” held at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. The poster presented interim findings from a human-geographical study on working conditions and the composition of the workforce at a Berlin University Alliance site. Focusing on the perspectives of different employee groups at the workplace university, the contribution addressed opportunities and limits of political organisation. The poster engaged with current debates on precarious working conditions in academia and attracted considerable interest in the conference context.
Further information on the X-Student Research Group
Labour Geographies im Kontext akademischer Forschung und Lehre, Freie Universität Berlin