Two JKU Researchers presented with the 2020 Ars Docendi

The state award for excellence in teaching was presented to two JKU faculty members at the Department of Empirical Social Research.

The award in the category of research-related or art-led education was presented to Mag. Dr. Dimitri Prandner and Mag. Robert Moosbrugger, BSc. The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research has been presenting the Ars Docendi State Award since 2013 in recognition of the importance of education in the science system and to increase the visibility of outstanding achievements in education.
 

Award: 2020 Ars Docendi

The basis for the award: Empirical Research Internships: University Education Programs for Asylum-Seekers. The jury’s summary: "The jury was particularly impressed with this program and the way undergraduate students were involved in conducting independent research work to academically qualify them in a competence-oriented manner as well as the way the evaluation study was conducted and carried out over several cohorts so that the relevance of the collected data was also tangible for teaching across semesters."

Content: The award was presented in recognition of an educational research project involving undergraduate students in sociology and focusing on integrating refugees and asylum-seekers at the university. What is, on the one hand, a current socio-politically issue and controversial topic is, on the other hand, a field of research in which there are still substantial epistemological deficits. The first cohort of students worked on a concrete research assigned by the Austrian University Conference (uniko) designed to generate fundamental insight into the field of research. The colleagues in the second cohort used the findings to draft in-depth analyses, enabling participants to not only experience the direct impact of their work, but also understand the implications of their research. In doing so, they contributed to academic and scientific discourse and its processual character even during their undergraduate studies.
 

About Dr. Prandner and Dr. Moosbrugger

Mag. Dr. Dimitri Prandner, age 36, from Salzburg

Area of Research: Methods of empirical social research, sociology of news and information, and social change. He is currently participating in national survey programs and analyzing the national and international research infrastructure.

Hobbies: He is an enthusiastic cineaste with a soft spot for French and Scandinavian films. His second great passion is comic books. And, of course, his two children.

Curriculum vitae: Prandner graduated with honors in 2010 with a degree in sociology at the JKU. He earned his doctorate degree with honors at the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences at Paris Lodron University in Salzburg. His dissertation was titled: "Wandel abseits der Digitalisierung? Das journalistische Feld zwischen strukturellen Veränderungen und stabilen Selbstbildern".

Mag. Robert Moosbrugger, BSc, age 38, from Linz

Area of Research: Educational research, health sociology and social change. He is currently working on his dissertation titled "Integrationspotenziale moderner Bildungssysteme".

Hobbies: Sociology in everyday life and the search for structures and processes in one's own life.

Curriculum vitae: Moosbrugger earned a degree in social economics and sociology at the JKU and has been in the doctoral degree program in Social Sciences, Economics and Business since 2017.