The Graduate Academy and the Office for Gender Equality cordially invite you to a special evening that combines academic insights with practical experience, opens up new perspectives, encourages reflection, and highlights concrete courses of action.

Colleges and universities are places of knowledge, innovation, and personal development, but they are also organizations where different roles, hierarchies, and interdependencies intersect. This makes it all the more important to foster a culture characterized by respect, transparency, and a sense of responsibility. Power is part of everyday academic life and entails a special responsibility, particularly for those in leadership positions. Preventing the abuse of power therefore means more than simply reacting to specific incidents: it is about designing structures and processes in such a way that fair procedures, respectful leadership, and treating one another with dignity become the norm.

How can we consciously navigate power and responsibility in academia and work together to shape a university culture in which responsibility, respect, and fair treatment are the norm?
We would like to explore these questions together. The Graduate Academy and the Office for Gender Equality cordially invite you to a special evening that combines academic insights with practical experience, opens up new perspectives, encourages reflection, and highlights concrete courses of action.

On Thursday, February 18, 2027 (starting at 6:00 p.m.), we invite you to join us at the Kellerclub to examine, discuss, and engage in conversation about how we can shape a strong, respectful, and responsible academic culture.

The focus will not only be on the question of where abuse of power begins and how we can recognize it, but also: what can we all do? How can we reflect on our own attitudes, take responsibility, communicate mindfully, respect boundaries, and be aware of existing support and reporting channels?

Our speaker, Dr. Manuela Tischler, will approach the topic empirically and evidence-based, drawing on her current research. She will highlight the forms and dynamics of abuse of power that can arise in academia, identify the gray areas between legitimate leadership and misconduct, and examine which structural and cultural conditions can be problematic. Above all, however, the focus is on the question of what we can learn from this to shape our university culture and what concrete changes we can make.

The event is aimed at anyone who wishes to take responsibility for fostering a healthy university culture.