Uni Bamberg News

Alexandros Gazos, Adjunct Lecturer at the Professorship, Successfully Completes Doctoral Dissertation

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:43:34 +0200

Alexandros Gazos, who has taught several courses as adjunct lecturer at the Professorship of Sociology with a focus on Digital Media, successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on July 29, 2026, at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

His dissertation, entitled

Sociotechnical Resilience: A Response to the Vulnerabilities of
Critical Information Infrastructures

was supervised by Prof. Dr. Isabel Kusche as primary advisor and PD Dr. Andreas Lösch (KIT) as secondary advisor.

We warmly congratulate him on this achievement!

New Publication on the Renewed Relevance of Ideology

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:30:24 +0200

In the volume The Return of Ideology, published by Oxford University Press and edited by Heiko Beyer and Alexandra Schauer, Isabel Kusche examines how systems theory views the role of ideology in society and why ideological conflicts are increasing again today.

The chapter can be accessed via: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197766620.003.0004

New article on emerging technologies and extremism

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 12:25:53 +0200

Isabel Kusche, together with Christian Büscher from the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis in Karlsruhe, has published an article discussing the necessity, implementation, and limitations of monitoring that can observe the potential attractiveness of new technologies for extremist actors.

The article can be found in the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change under the title “Monitoring new and emerging technologies in order to prevent extremism and terrorist violence.”

Prof. Dr. Isabel Kusche appointed as a Fellow of the Bavarian Science Alliance for Peace, Conflict, and Security Research

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 19:25:00 +0100

Prof. Dr. Isabel Kusche has been appointed as a Fellow of the Bavarian Science Alliance for Peace, Conflict, and Security Research. The alliance aims to bring together interdisciplinary expertise available at Bavarian universities in the three thematic areas.

Prof. Kusche will contribute her research on the digital transformation of the public sphere and artificial intelligence in particular.

New Article on Artificial Intelligence and Safe Design of Socio-Technical Systems

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 19:25:29 +0100

The article “Organising AI for safety: Identifying structural vulnerabilities to guide the design of AI-enhanced socio-technical systems” by Alexandros Gazos, James Kahn, Isabel Kusche, Christian Büscher, and Markus Götz has been published in the interdisciplinary journal Safety Science.

Using the example of advanced microgrids (locally defined power grids), the authors show how organizational security approaches can help to critically reflect the interactions between AI and other technical components.

Link to access the journal article online

New Publication on the Topic of Deepfakes

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 19:45:00 +0100

In the recently published anthology "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing? Forms and Functions of Media Artifact Authentication", edited by Amrei Bahr and Gerrit Fröhlich, the article “Politische Öffentlichkeit, Desinformation und das Problem von Deepfakes” by Prof. Dr. Kusche has been published.

The full text is available online for free via the following link.

New Article on the Dangers of AI and the New EU Regulation

Mon, 13 May 2024 00:00:00 +0200

The journal article Possible harms of artificial intelligence and the EU AI act: fundamental rights and risk by Prof. Dr. Kusche published in the Journal of Risk Research explores the potential and limits of risk-based regulation of AI, particularly in terms of the concept of harm to fundamental rights. Referring to the AI Act, its earlier drafts, and related documents, the article analyzes how this regulatory framework defines the harms caused by AI and what impact the chosen definition has on regulation.

Link to access the journal article online

New Publication on the Topic of Artificial Intelligence

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 16:30:00 +0100

In the recently published anthology "AI-Limits and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence" on the subject of AI criticism, the article "Artificial Intelligence and/as Risk" by Prof. Dr. Kusche has been published.

The full text is available online for free at the following link.

In this volume, the authors explore the limits of artificial intelligence as well as essential prerequisites for its use. They focus on identifying technical and societal problems associated with AI, discuss existing and potential solutions, and examine the societal and economic opportunities and challenges associated with the current and future development of artificial intelligence.

Prof. Dr. Isabel Kusche as Co-Editor of the "Zeitschrift für Soziologie"

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 10:02:01 +0100

Since January 2023, Prof. Dr. Isabel Kusche has been a co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Soziologie, one of the leading German-language academic journals in sociology.

Multimedia report "Digitales Universum"

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 11:23:51 +0100

A multimedia report now presents the research focus on digital humanities, social sciences and humanities at the University of Bamberg. The Professorship of Sociology With a Focus on Digital Media is also represented in the report.

You can find the report here:

https://forschungsprofil.uni-bamberg.de/digital