Our seminars are designed to introduce students to academic work, with a view to enhancing their skills in dealing with research and knowledge. The aim is to gain a deeper insight into how knowledge is generated, thereby raising awareness of the limits of our knowledge and the process of knowledge creation. To this end, students produce a short seminar paper on a selected topic and present their findings to the group.
The current overarching topics for the seminars taking place in the winter and summer semesters can be found on this page. Please note that registration for a seminar takes place at the end of the preceding semester (see notes on this page).
Applications for the Bachelor’s/Master’s seminar in the winter semester of 2026/2027 can be submitted from 22 June 2026 up to and including 29 June 2026. Please use the application forms for the Bachelor’s seminar and the Master’s seminar, which will be available on the department’s website during this period.
Announcement of acceptances: expected on 03 July 2026
Deadline for accepting offered places or withdrawing: by 06 July 2026
Kick-off meeting for the Bachelor’s/Master’s seminar: expected in the 1st or 2nd week of the semester
The chair offers a Bachelor’s and a Master’s seminar in the next winter semester :
Tagtäglich nutzen wir soziale Medien wie TikTok, Instagram oder LinkedIn und bewegen uns durch endlose Feeds mit vielfältigen Inhalten. Während Nutzer:innen durch ihre Feeds scrollen, denken sie möglicherweise über das nächste Video, aktuelle Trends oder eingehende Nachrichten nach. Weniger Aufmerksamkeit wird jedoch darauf gerichtet, wie diese Inhalte überhaupt ausgewählt werden, welcher Mechanismen sich soziale Medien und ähnliche Plattformen bedienen und wie diese unser Denken, Fühlen und Verhalten beeinflussen.
In diesem Seminar werden zentrale Mechanismen sozialer Medien und deren Auswirkungen auf die Kognition und das Verhalten von Nutzer:innen untersucht. Beispielhafte Fragestellungen, die behandelt werden, sind: Wie formen algorithmische Auswahlprozesse und Filterblasen die Wahrnehmung von Informationen? Inwiefern fördern soziale Medien soziale Vergleiche, emotionale Reaktionen oder Gewohnheiten in der Nutzung? Warum fällt es Nutzer:innen schwer, die Nutzung zu unterbrechen? Wie beeinflussen Designmechanismen wie Nudges oder Dark Patterns das Verhalten? Und unter welchen Umständen setzen Nutzer:innen die Nutzung fort oder brechen sie ab?
Digital tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot have long been part of our professional and personal lives, and artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent in nearly every aspect of life. But what does it actually mean when humans and AI systems work, think, and make decisions together?
This seminar examines key aspects of human-AI collaboration and explores its individual, social, and societal implications. Among other things, the seminar focuses on the following questions: How does close collaboration with AI systems change human decision-making processes, and to what extent does this leave room for independent cognitive effort? What new forms of trust or dependence arise from the everyday use of these technologies? And under what conditions does productive collaboration between humans and machines succeed, and when and why does it fail?
Important:
Bachelor's and Master's seminar places are allocated in a coordinated manner in the Information Systems (chairs of Prof. Gnewuch, Prof. Krämer, Prof. Widjaja, Prof. Gerlach). You will therefore not receive more than one offer for a seminar place. In order to maximise your chances of getting your preferred place, please only apply for exactly one seminar in the Information Systems group per semester. If you are unable to get a place in your first-choice seminar but there are still places available in other seminars, we will offer you a place in another seminar without the need for a separate application. Students who are further along in their degree programme will be given priority due to the more urgent need. Furthermore, when allocating seminar places in the field of Information Systems, students for whom exclusion from these places could potentially lead to a delay in their studies (this applies in particular if you are studying Information Systems at Bachelor’s level and have earned at least 90 ECTS credits) will be considered separately and across all chairs. Therefore, multiple applications are not necessary here either, as these students are assigned to one of the seminars in any case.
Please note that the kick-off events for the seminars take place at the start of the coming semester and attendance is compulsory.
