Dr Paul Hamann-Rose from the Department of English Literature and Culture at the University of Passau was awarded this year's ‘Prize for Research with a Sustainability Focus’. His research focuses on literary and cultural analyses of ecology and human-environment relationships. Dr Hamann-Rose has published a monograph on genetic concepts of ecology and conducts research on romantic concepts of ecology. He is active in various research networks and organises international conferences on sustainability. He also integrates his research into teaching by offering seminars on topics such as ‘Energy Ecologies’. ‘Ideally, the awardee will demonstrate sustainable aspects in his or her entire academic life's work. If possible, all formats of academic research - publications, third-party funding, conferences - should touch on sustainability. If this research can then also be passed on in teaching with a connection to sustainability, then this would be an all-round worthy prizewinner. Our prizewinner actually fulfils all of these criteria. He is one of the most promising young academics in German English studies,’ said Prof. Dr Werner Gamerith in his laudatory speech, paying tribute to Dr Paul Hamann-Rose.
Completing a Master's degree programme with the top grade of 1.0 is not part of the standard academic record. The award for sustainability at the University of Passau in the category ‘Research with a focus on sustainability’ goes to a young researcher who has already published his first research paper in an internationally renowned journal, the Journal of Behavioral Economics and Organisation. He has also already gained merits in teaching and is involved in a variety of teaching projects such as DeepWrite.
So what is the merit of the young scientist in terms of sustainability? It is the written Master's thesis, which was also awarded the top grade of 1.0, which - and I quote from the statement of the thesis supervisor, Prof. Dr Johann Graf Lambsdorff (Chair of Economics) - ‘[links] the problem of the overuse of natural resources with the risk of violent conflict. The connection between these two problem areas is not new. What is special, however, is the concrete experimental realisation. The interesting result is that scarce resources do not per se lead to more violence, as is sometimes assumed in the literature. The risk of increasing violence is only evident for endogenous scarcity as a result of human-induced overuse. This makes it clear that future problems of a lack of sustainability must also be understood in the context of their communication. The central question will be whether future generations will look for culprits for the increasing scarcity or whether they will interpret it as exogenous restrictions. This will provide insightful policy implications.’
The Master's thesis is being prepared for submission to a high-calibre journal, while the young scientist's dissertation project at the University of Passau has already been tackled. This single-mindedness is another quality that is emphasised when awarding the sustainability prize.
The University of Passau 2023 Prize for Sustainability, endowed with 1,500 euros, in the category ‘Research related to sustainability’ goes to Mr Stephan Geschwind.
The Sustainability Award at the University of Passau in the category ‘Research related to sustainability’ goes to a young researcher who can already look back on an impressive academic CV in his still young career. When studying the curriculum vitae, it is hard to know which area to emphasise - all sections reflect excellence, internationality, numerous awards, diverse practical experience and, forming the basis of all of this, an extremely remarkable student career with a double master's degree in history and law from the University of Vienna, an LLM from Columbia Law School in New York, a joint doctorate in public law from the Universities of Paris-Nanterre and Vienna and a Dr. phil. in history, also from the University of Vienna. phil. in history, also from the University of Vienna. I will pick out just a few of his international guest lectureships and research in the fields of international public international law and constitutional law, landing him in Cyprus, the Netherlands, France, Greece and Iceland, Russia and Malaysia, the UK and the USA. All of this took place in the first 33 years of his life.
But what is the merit for sustainability research? With the legal journal ‘Nachhaltigkeitsrecht - Zeitschrift für das Recht der Nachhaltigen Entwicklung’ (Sustainability Law - Journal for the Law of Sustainable Development), co-founded by our award winner, he has, according to the reviewer and nominator Prof Dr Jörg Fedtke, ‘made a significant contribution to raising the profile of the University of Passau. It is the first legal journal to deal comprehensively with sustainable development across all legal disciplines’. With this journal, our prizewinner is pursuing the goal of a paradigm shift in jurisprudence - a paradigm shift that our keynote speaker also strongly advocated. I quote from the journal's mission statement: ‘Not only the law itself, but all associated processes will have to fulfil the requirements of sustainable action in the future. However, sustainability can only be realised as a guiding socio-political principle if it also succeeds in becoming a guiding legal principle.’
There is really nothing more to add to these words in terms of their programme; they make a fundamental plea for a new constitution of our legal system based on principles of sustainability.
The University of Passau 2022 Prize for Sustainability in the category ‘Research related to sustainability’, endowed with 1,500 euros, goes to Dr Dr Markus P. Beham.
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