As the largest migrant group in Germany, people of Turkish origin are often perceived to be a homogenous group. However, this image overlooks the great amount of diversity within this migrant community. Tepeli’s research dealt with sectarian lines of conflict between Alevis and Sunnis with a migration background. Her dissertation has been awarded the 2024 Augsburg Academic Prize for Intercultural Studies.

Tepeli’s research explores the extent to which historical conflicts originating in Turkey affect the emotional bonds of Alevi and Sunni youth in a post-migration society. Her research shows that these young people, as post-migration youth, share the unifying experience of feeling as outsiders. However, young Alevis face increased risks of vulnerability since they are positioned as outsiders both within Germany and within the Turkish diaspora.

The jury praised Tepeli’s work for its critical contribution to coming to terms with repressed violence and exclusion in our liberal, plural, immigrant society. Her research is particularly important for pedagogical and political work with young people. Tepeli will continue her research in Bochum as part of the BMBF-funded research project “Local conflicts and emotions in the urban spaces” (LoKoNet) in the field of conflict research.

Equal opportunities at universities

Due to the ubiquity of practices of differentiation, such as racism in educational institutions, not all learners have equal opportunities when it comes to their future prospects, quite in spite of the equal opportunities postulated by the Deutscher Bildungsrat in 1972. In her master’s thesis, Canê Çağlar researched how Black students, Indigenous students, and other students of colour perceive the university as a place of learning and how their agency can be enhanced. Çağlar received this year’s Encouragement Award for her critical analysis of racism.

In her thesis, Çağlar showed that the inclusion of the perspectives of BIPOC students on universities as places of learning as well as the establishment of racism critique within such institutions can reduce racism and bring about changes that are critical of racism. The jury praised the fact that as a consequence of the institutional options for action identified in her thesis, greater attention has been drawn to the topic, thus bringing the goal of a fair educational system closer in reach.

Çağlar intends to continue working on topics of educational justice in future. She plans to build on her master’s thesis research through a doctorate where she will focus on the educational biographies of (multiply) marginalised persons.

Augsburg Academic Prize for Intercultural Studies

The Augsburg Academic Prize for Intercultural Studies, which was first announced in 1997 on the initiative of the founder of FiLL e.V., the entrepreneur and later Augsburg Peace Prize winner, Helmut Hartmann, honours outstanding achievements by early-career researchers whose research deals with interculturalism in Germany and associated questions and challenges.

The prize is open to all academic disciplines and aims to recognise innovative, interdisciplinary research conducted as part of a qualification. The prize aims to provide an incentive for thematically relevant research, thereby promoting research on intercultural topics. It therefore aims to contribute to a better understanding of a society shaped by diversity and of the forms of organisation that are required for change.

By recognising excellent early career researchers, the importance of intercultural studies for peaceful coexistence in an open society is emphasised and with this is mind academic developments supported and promoted.

The call for applications for the 2025 prize is already open.
Further information can be found on the website of the University of Augsburg.