University of Heidelberg

Closing Ceremony for Graduates

Jan 31, 2012

The first group of doctoral students completed the Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies. The Closing Ceremony for them was held on Thursday evening.

In October 2008, the first group of students commenced their studies at the Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies (GPTS-1). Now, after three years of intensive study and field research, 13 doctoral students have completed the programme. On Thursday evening, a Closing Ceremony was held to celebrate the group.

The ceremony took place at the Karl Jaspers Centre for Transcultural Studies. Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch, Director of the Graduate Programme, opened the event with welcoming remarks, before Programme Lecturer Dr. Kerstin von Lingen, Programme Manager Oliver Lamers, and doctoral student Matthias Liehr revived memories from the past three years. Finally, the Cluster’s Acting Director Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels addressed the doctoral students before they were awarded their certificates. The event was accompanied by Barbara Rosnitschek on the concert flute.

The members of the first group of the Graduate Programme are (in alphabetical order): Ravi Baghel, Silke Bechler, Lisa Caviglia, Christoph Cyranski, Yasemin Leylek, Matthias Liehr, Haifen Nan, Sridevi Padmanabhan, Markus Pauli, Takashi Saikawa, Roberta Tontini, I-Wei Wu and Eva Zhang. The topics of their areas of research range from the Political Ecology of Large Dams in China and India to Ayurvedic Health Tourism in India.

The Graduate Programme for Transcultural Studies (GPTS) is a structured doctoral programme within the interdisciplinary research environment of the Cluster. Currently, there are 24 additional doctoral students participating in the programme. The GPTS is headed by Prof. Dr. Madeleine Herren-Oesch. Oliver Lamers is Graduate Programme Manager, and Kerstin von Lingen Graduate Programme Lecturer.