Tübingen University awards teaching prize for innovative webcomic
Masters seminar tells the history of social science in comic form
The teaching award of the University of Tübingen for 2020 goes to junior professor Ursula Offenberger (focus on teaching, method center of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences) and the participants in the seminar “Chicago Pragmatism in Theory and Practice: Origins of Empirical Social Research in the USA” on Institute for Education. The team is recognized for developing a webcomic that tells the story of the social sciences. The comic can also be used in seminars in the future.
The public awarding of the teaching award had to be suspended last year due to the corona pandemic. Since 2007, the teaching award has been awarded annually for particularly sustainable teaching achievements and commitment to students. The selection process is carried out by the Senate Commission for Studies and Teaching.
Information on the teaching award:
In the master’s seminar, Ursula Offenberger and her students developed the concept for a webcomic together. This tells the story of the beginnings of empirical social research in the USA. The focus is on a form of social research in which social science, politics and practical social work were not yet separated, but formed a unit. It is also about pioneering contributions by women to the history of social science – a perspective that is often not reflected in the usual classic canons.
The webcomic was completed with the help of an illustrator and has been published in stages since December 2020. The aim of the project is on the one hand to enable seminar participants to experiment with creative writing techniques. On the other hand, the product is intended to arouse interest in the history of the social sciences in other students. The comic scenes are enriched with hyperlinks to various sources, for example with original texts, pictures and videos. This should enable a multimedia approach to the story. The innovative project is characterized by the choice of a medium that is equally unusual for science communication and teaching.