Events


Please find here a selection of the events at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg in the fall semester 2025. More events will be added during the course of the semester.

Coffee Lectures Unitobler+

This fall semester you again have the opportunity to learn about new and useful information about research in the humanities in 15 minutes during the lunchtime coffee at 13:00. Participation in our Coffee Lectures - a cooperation with the University Library - is possible in person at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg as well as online over Zoom.

Coffee Lectures in Fall Semester 2025

Prosopographic research with Ancestry

Dr Lennart Günzel (University Library)

 

Date: Tuesday, 4 November 2025, 1:00–1:30 p.m.

Place: Walter Benjamin Kolleg (Unitobler) and online

 

The genealogical research database Ancestry has millions of digitised sources such as passenger lists, birth, marriage and death certificates, church records and much more. It is suitable for both academic research and reconstructing personal family history.

 

Coffee Lectures in Fall Semester 2025

Hurrah, the publishing contract has arrived!

Dr Elio Pellin (Open Science Team)

 

Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 1:00–1:30 p.m.

Place: Walter Benjamin Kolleg (Unitobler) and online

 

In order for your book or article to be published, you must transfer certain rights to the publisher. In return, the publisher promises you certain services. This is regulated in a contract. But is it a good contract, and if so, for whom? In this Coffee Lecture, we will look at which rights you retain and which services you should insist on; what financing options you have and what conditions are attached to them.

Coffee Lectures in Fall Semester 2025

Freely accessible, but not ‘royalty-free’: images in open access

Katharina Böhmer MA, Alessandra Fedrigo MA (OA Lab)

 

Date: Tuesday, 23 September 2025, 1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Place: Walter Benjamin Kolleg (Unitobler) and online

 

Images are indispensable in many fields of research – but their legal status is often complex, especially in digital publications. Many images are subject to copyright, while open access generally relies on free reuse through Creative Commons (CC) licences. However, copyright and open access publishing are by no means mutually exclusive. How can researchers navigate between these seemingly conflicting interests and publish their research with images without risking legal conflicts? What strategies are available for dealing with image rights in digital publications? And what resources are available to researchers at the University of Bern for this purpose?

Events of the WBKolleg, the Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Research Network (IPN, german IFN), the Graduate School of the Arts and Humanities GSAH (doctoral programs ICS, GS, SLS and SINTA), the Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS) and the Center for Global Studies (CGS)