Miriam Tekath M. A.

Miriam Tekath is working as a research fellow in Prof. Dr. Thorsten Bonacker’s team at the Center for Conflict Studies. Her academic work is combining a political research interest with micro-sociological research approaches and focuses on social conflicts in societies, which are polarized by secessionist aspirations.

Her PhD-project “(Un)making sense of differences – reconsidering the meaning of politicized differences for everyday conflict interactions” seeks to understand the process of meaning-making regarding politicized differences in everyday conflict interactions. The politicization processes of the long-term secessionist conflicts in Quebec (Canada) and in Casamance (Senegal) represent the empirical framework for analyzing the respective universities as micro-contexts of social polarization. The interaction strategies by university members who are coping everyday with the contradiction between politicization and cooperation will help us understand the accompanying conflict dynamics and provide insights for conflict transformation in highly polarized societies.

In addition, Miriam Tekath has been working as a research fellow in the DSF-funded project Knowledge and Peacebuilding. The Epistemic Practice of the German Parliament in the Context of Peacebuilding- and Stabilization Mandates for UN and EU Missions in Mali (2013 – 2019) led by Dr. Werner Distler.

Specific research interests:

• Social Conflict Dynamics and Everyday Interaction
• Politics of Difference and Theories of Multiculturalism
• Conflict Resolution and Conflict Transformation (with a focus on plural societies)
• Mediation
• Higher Education in Processes of Peace and Conflict
• Regional Focus: Canada, Senegal, Countries of the Francophonie, South-East Europe
• Methodical & Methodological Focus: Interviews & Qualitative Content Analysis, Group Discussions & Documentary Method, Situational Analysis

Publications

Distler, Werner/Tekath, Miriam (2023): Knowledge and the governing of the interventionary object Mali in the German parliament. European Journal of International Security, 1-18. doi:10.1017/eis.2023.12

Tekath, Miriam (2022): Vermittlung zwischen polarisierten Differenzen. Konflikt- und Kooperationsdynamiken in senegalesischen Hochschulen, Soziologiemagazin, 2-2022, 42-59. https://doi.org/10.3224/soz.v15i2.04

Tekath, Miriam/Bonacker, Thorsten (2022): Concepts of Violence. An Overview (in German). In: Cohrs, Christopher/Knab, Nadine/Sommer, Gert (ed.), Handbuch Friedenspsychologie. https://doi.org/10.17192/es2022.0023

Sydiq, Tareq/Tekath, Miriam (2022): Youth as generational configurations: Conceptualising conflicts along generation-based dynamics. Peacebuilding 10(1), 51-65, https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2021.1989900

Distler, Werner/Tekath, Miriam (2021): Robuste Mandate, Robustes Wissen? Mali-Mandate im Bundestag (2013-2021). Policy Paper No. 6, Center for Conflict Studies. https://uni-marburg.de/Khvjg

Tekath, Miriam (2021): La sécurisation de la langue française comme ordre politique et social : pratiques et conflits quotidiens au Québec. Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien 71 (2021), 116-134.

Tekath, Miriam (2020): Soziologie des Konflikts. KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11577-020-00692-1

Tekath, Miriam (2020): Elevator Pitch und Speed-Dating. Eine vielversprechende Methodenkombination für die Lehre in der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung. Lehrgut - Ein Blog für Lehrende der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung. https://lehrgut.hypotheses.org/1285

Tekath, Miriam (2018): Wege der Hochschulkooperation zwischen Dili und Marburg. Newsletter 2017 Deutsche Osttimor Gesellschaft. https://osttimor.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/DOTG_Newsletter_2017.pdf

Teaching

Winter Term 2023/24: Institutionelle Konfliktregelung in pluralen Gesellschaften (MA)

Summer Term 2023: Relational Dimensions of Peace and Conflict Studies (MA)

Summer Term 2022 & Winter Term 2022/23: Jugend und generationale Beziehungen in Frieden und Konflikt (MA, research seminar)

Winter Term 2021/22: Mediation und Kommunale Konfliktberatung (BA)

Summer Term 2021: Mediation und Konfliktbearbeitung in transkulturellen Kontexten (MA, digital seminar)

Winter Term 2020/21: Mediation in der Stadt (BA, digital seminar)

Summer Term 2020: Mediation und zivile Konfliktbearbeitung. Anwendungsfelder und aktuelle Herausforderungen (MA, digital seminar)

Winter Term 2019/20: Mediation im Kontext. Die vielfältigen Anwendungsfelder der Konfliktvermittlung (BA)

July 2019: Statebuilding and political violence in Europe and beyond (in english, course at the Hessen International Summer University, Marburg)

Summer Term 2019: Peacebuilding & Differenzpolitik: Konfliktbearbeitung in Kontexten gesellschaftlicher Diversität (MA)

Winter Term 2018/19: Institutionelle Konfliktregelung in heterogenen Gesellschaften (BA)

Presentations

09.09.2023, EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations:
(Re-)shaping conflicts over territorial self-determination. A comparison of university students’ navigation practices in Canada and Senegal

08.09.2023, EISA Pan-European Conference on International Relations:
Social Relations and the Simultaneity of Cooperation and Conflict amidst the Politicization of Social Differences

30.03.2023 Presentation with Eva Froneberg, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedens- und Konfliktforschung Kolloquium 2023 (due to illness, the presentation was only held by Eva Froneberg):
Student associations and their navigation of higher education policies on dealing with violent pasts

18.03.2023 Presentation with Eva Froneberg, ISA 2023 Annual Convention:
Student associations and their navigation of higher education policies on dealing with violent pasts

16.03.2023, ISA 2023 Annual Convention:
Navigating separatist conflicts: A comparison of universities in Canada and Senegal

28.09.2022, Annual Congress of the German Sociological Association 2022, Ad-hoc-Panel of the Soziologiemagazin "Vermittlung zwischen polarisierten Welten? Ein- und Ausblicke aus Wissenschaft und Praxis"                                              Konflikt- und Kooperationsdynamiken im Kontext sozio-politischer Polarisierung in senegalesischen Hochschulen

04.07.2022, Presentation at the summer school of the Université du Québec in Berlin on "Société et politique en Allemagne du vingtième siècle à l'Europe de Merkel"
Le changement des attitudes générationnelles envers la politique étrangère allemande

08.04.2022, Guest Lecture in Frédérick-Guillaume Dufour's class, Université Laval
Les relations sociales dans des contextes de différences politisées. Dynamiques de coopération et de conflit dans les universités sénégalaises

31.03.2022, ISA 2022 Annual Convention:
Relational Effects of Performing Field Research During a (Global) Pandemic

30.03.2022, ISA 2022 Annual Convention:
Conflict and Cooperation Dynamics in and around Universities - An analysis of the Senegalese Higher Education Sector

14.02.2022, Streit&Struntz – Raum für Denkanstöße zu kommunalen Konflikten (VfB Salzwedel) - Thinking about municipal conflicts:
Potenziale sozialer Beziehungen in polarisierten Gesellschaften

08.02.2022, Sociological and Anthropological Week (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Citizenship and Minorities, University of Ottawa):
Les relations sociales dans des contextes de différences politisées - dynamiques de coopération et de conflit dans les universités sénégalaises

19.07.2021, Summer school of the Civil Peace Service-Project Southeast Asian University Partnership for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation (SAUP, GIZ):
Teaching Conflict Resolution Techniques

08.04.2021, Presentation with Werner Distler, ISA 2021 Annual Convention:
Knowledge and Peacebuilding. The Epistemic Practice of the German Parliament in the Context of Military Operations in Mali

06.04.2021, Presentation with Tareq Sydiq, ISA 2021 Annual Convention:
Generational Configurations and Power. Conceptualizing Conflicts Along Generation-Based Dynamics

25.01.2021, Presentation with Werner Distler, Zentrumskolloquium, Center for Conflict Studies:
Knowledge and Peacebuilding. The Epistemic Practice of the German Parliament in the context of Mali Operations

08.12.2020 Guest Lecture in Professor Elke Winter‘s class on "Ethnic and National Questions" at the University of Ottawa:
Ethnic and National Questions in Peace and Conflict Studies

30.10.2020 Fishbowl at the Zentrumstage 2020 conference, in cooperation with Pia Falschebner, Tareq Sydiq und Darius Zifonun, on "(Re)thinking Time and Temporalities in Peace and Conflict":
Conflict Generations and Generational Conflict

15.02.2020, Presentation at the Annual Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries 2020:
La protection de la langue française comme ordre politique au Québec: Pratiques quotidiennes et conflits intergénérationnels

22.11.2019, Workshop on the Annual Colloquium of the AFK-working group "curriculum und didactics" on innovative teaching in peace and conflict studies:
Elevator Pitch und Speeddating. Eine Methodenkombination als Mittelweg aus dem Komplexität-Reduktions-Dilemma?

15.11.2019, Presentation at the First Joint Research Workshop Conflict Analysis Reserach Center (University of Kent) und the Center for Conflict Studies:
(Un)making sense of differences - reconsidering the meaning of politicized differences for everyday conflicts 

25.06.2019, Research-Showcase for the Saferworld-Project "Youth Delegates for Tolerance and Democracy" from Kyrgyzstan:
Multilingualität und intergenerationelle Konflikte in Québec

12.06.2019, Lecture Series "Romanistik im Diskurs", Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg:
Konfliktive Kontinuitäten der Stillen Revolution in Québec

13.05.19, Zentrumskolloquium "Let's talk about conflict":
'Little Security Nothings' and Everyday Conflicts: the Securitization of the French Language in Québec

07.03.19, Kolloquium der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedens- und Konfliktforschung (AFK):
Die Europäische Union und ihre Regionen – Narrative zur Gewalt auf Korsika

Positions

since 04/23 | Research Fellow at the Institute for Political Science, RWTH Aachen University

since 04/22 | Political advisory in peace and conflict research

since 04/2022 | deputy staff representation at the research and doctoral committee FB03, Philipps-University Marburg

since 11/2020 | Spokesperson of the working group "Curriculum and Didactics" of the German Association for Peace and Conflict Studies

09/2020-04/2021 | Research Fellow in the DSF-funded project Knowledge and Peacebuilding. The Epistemic Practice of the German Parliament in the Context of Peacebuilding- and Stabilization Mandates for UN and EU Missions in Mali (2013 – 2019)

02/2019-05/2021 | Representative of the Academic Mid-Level Faculty at the directory of the Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps-University Marburg

since 08/2018 | Research Fellow, Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps-University Marburg

08/2017-08/2018 | Student Research Assistant, Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps-University Marburg

03/2017-08/2018 | Student Research Assistant, Collaborative Research Centre „Dynamics of Security“, Philipps-University Marburg

07/2016-10/2016 | Student Research Assistant, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Osnabrueck

12/2015-11/2016 | Student Research Assistant, Equal Opportunity Office, University of Osnabrueck

11/2014-12/2014 | Student Research Assistant, Institute for Political Science, University of Bremen

(Digital) office hours take place by arrangement via email.

• 12/2023 | Certificate "Competence for Professional University Teaching"
• 02/2018 | Certificate as a Mediator (with a focus on non-violent communication)
• 10/2016-05/2018 | Master of Arts „Peace and Conflict Studies“, Philipps-University Marburg
• 10/2015-02/2019 | Master of Arts „Political Science: Democratic Governance and Civil Society“, University of Osnabrueck (with distinction)
• 08-12/2013 | Semester abroad, University of Montreal, Canada
• 10/2011-05/2015 | Bachelor of Arts „Political Science“ (Major) and „French“ (Minor), University of Bremen (with distinction)

• Scholarship for International Conference Participation by the German Academic Exchange Service (2024)
• Travel scholarship by MArburg Research Academy (2023)
• Scholarship for International Conference Participation by the German Academic Exchange Service (2022)
• Shortterm Doctoral Scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (2020/21)
• Graduate Student Scholarship des International Council for Canadian Studies (2020/2022)
• Scholarship Honours of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries for a Research Stay in Canada (2018)
• Scholarship „Deutschlandstipendium“, Philipps-University Marburg (2016-2017)
• Scholarship by the ASA-Program for an internship in Cameroon (2015)
• Scholarship „Deutschlandstipendium“, University of Bremen (2012-2015)