These are the incoming research questions and ideas from our community partners (citizens and non-profit organizations) for CEU students and faculty to pick up. We keep this list updated throughout the academic year, constantly adding new ones and stripping those off that are taken. Get in touch with us via email (scienceshop@ceu.edu) to see how it can become your thesis or capstone project, internship, course project or volunteer gig.
| Labels | Title | Research idea | Organisation |
| migrants, law, representation, advocacy, care work, workers' right | Rights of the care workers, Austria | The Interessengemeinschaft der 24-Stunden-Betreuer_innen (IG24) is a self-organised, non-partisan association supported by activists with the aim of representing the interests of the professional group in a comprehensive way. "We no longer want people to talk for us, we want to speak for ourselves." The initiators of the association are Iniciativa24, an association of Slovakian carers, and DREPT (Justice in Care and Personal Assistance), an association of Romanian carers. https://ig24.at/en/ig24-history-goals/
They are one of the three migration activist associations in Austria (agriculture, care work, delivery drivers) and interested in working with CEU and in making their activities more visible / accessible in the CEU departments, and matched with student interests. |
IG24 |
| migrants, law, representation, advocacy, agriculture, workers' right | Rights of the agricultural workers, Austria | sezonieri.at are a coalition of PRO-GE trade union with agricultural workers´ activists. They cooperate with non-governmental organizations which stand up for the rights of harvest workers, representing the interests of agricultural workers.
They are one of the three migration activist associations in Austria (agriculture, care work, delivery drivers) and interested in working with CEU and in making their activities more visible / accessible in the CEU departments, and matched with student interests. |
Sezonieri |
| migrants, law, representation, advocacy, gig economy, workers' right | Riders Collective - Bike messengers in the gig-economy | An initiative of bike messengers in the gig-economy who strive to improve courier lives in Austria and around the world; encouraging a dialog to identify desired improvements in communication, compensation, and benefits, and to create meaningful action in the pursuit of those goals.
They are one of the three migration activist associations in Austria (agriculture, care work, delivery drivers) and interested in working with CEU and in making their activities more visible / accessible in the CEU departments, and matched with student interests. |
Riders Collective |
| restorative jusitce, education in prison, incarcerated people, prison culture, volunteering, prison service | Bettering the prison system | We want to challenge the narrative about prison staff and show the prison system and society at large what changemakers and leaders on the frontline can achieve.
We welcome ideas for research projects aligned with the scope and mission of the project. In detail this may answer: How do university graduates view the role of a prison officer? How could restorative justice approaches affect the relationship between prison staff and incarcerated individuals? What mentoring and training is needed to support prison staff in their rehabilitative efforts? What would a graduate scheme need to offer to attract university graduates to working in the prison service? How can the Unlocked Graduates Programme be translated and adapted to the context of the Austrian and/or European custodial settings? |
Richtungwechsel |
| education, school, children, children’s right, disadvantage, volunteering | Education program for disadvantaged | Especially for children in difficult situations and children from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, everyday school life is a great challenge. For them, kindergartens, schools and after-school care centers are important institutions for support and encouragement. This is where FREI.Spiel comes into the picture. You too can contribute to giving disadvantaged children better opportunities for their future education and careers. You decide where you want to help.
If you have time in the afternoon, then support a group in the after-school care center. If you want to use the morning, then help a school class in class. If you are interested in accompanying younger children, it is possible to work with children in kindergarten. Together we will find the right time and location for your support. Please note that you need to be able to regularly visit the children once a week for at least two hours until the end of the school year. You can read more here: https://www.freispiel.or.at/site/mitmachen/freispielerin. German language skills are required. |
FREI.Spiel |
| gender, art, masculanity, feminism | UnMASC | UnMASC is a project that aims to deconstruct white-hetero-cis concepts of gender that conflict with a social development towards more justice and equality. It addresses an oppressive system that is not limited to gender roles, but structurally determines our lives on all levels. We want to take off the masks that patriarchy is putting on us. We want to deconstruct toxic, violent, dominant and outdated gender images. We want to challenge narratives that put us into boxes where we don’t fit in. We want to create spaces where counter-narratives are built. Images that reflect the complexity of our identities.
Specific research ideas are welcome from students along the scope and mission of the project. The guiding questions are: why do so many people feel threatened by traditional gender roles and identities being challenged? How are stereotypical gender roles reproduced in everyday life? How can we create counternarratives? |
Kulturhaus Brotfabrik |
| urban studies, environment, art, philosophy, history, social studies | G A N G walking as relation – une pratique artistique |
toZOMIA is an art collective and community space, located in the Helmut-Zilk-Park, close to the campus. Antoine Effroy, part of that collective, is a French choreographic artist. His project welcomes student research interest, as detailed here below.
Can walking as an artistic practice in the public space – the space of the public – become a utopian walk that changes our relationship to the world? In the current context of crises caused by centuries of reckless exploitation of planetary resources, walking in the city can take on a new meaning. Walking may have artistic and political potential to positively change people's attitudes towards their living space. The aim is to explore the conditions for the body-to-body relationship with the city in order to develop an artistic practice that opens up the relationship to the urban space. It is neither a thematic city tour nor a sport, but walking as a "revelation of the pedestrian's relationships with himself, with others as well as with his environment". |
Antoine Effroy, toZomia |
| media, minorities, representation, public discourse | Representation of minority groups in mainstream media | How gender / ethnic minorities are represented in the mainstream media. The research project would focus on how to approach the issue and set up a research framework. | Radio Orange, community radio |
| cultural studies, access programs, museum, communities | Access to culture? Should admission to museums, theatres, concerts etc. be free? | At Kulturhaus Brotfabrik, art and culture are created by everyone and for everyone. Kulturhaus Brotfabrik aims to build bridges between different communities with the help of arts and culture and to make the arts and artistic expression accessible to people whose access to mainstream institutions of art is limited and/or impeded through societal mechanisms of exclusion.
Kulturhaus is looking for a collaboration on an empirical investigation that addresses attitudes and opinions around the accessibility of arts (e.g. "Should admission to museums, theatres, concerts etc. be free?" or "Should taxes be used to make culture & arts offerings free?"). Focus of the investigation should be Favoriten. |
Kulturhaus Brotfabrik |
| Migration, guest workers, urban planning, history, culture, education | Research on the Guest Workers' Monument | Volkshilfe have been working on the idea to erect a Guest Workers’ Monument and a connected educational space at the main train station in Vienna, to recognize their contribution to the country. The goal is to present different contexts and aspects of guest workers within the recent history of the city. The monument also aims to educate the broader public on the history of migration in Austria, and to bring the topic into the school curriculum.
During the spring 2023 course of "Conducting Interdisciplinary Research in Nationalism Studies", students conducted interviews with experts and citizens who live and work in Favoriten to map the diverse perspectives people have in relation to More interviews and research is needed as a next step. Volkshilfe is interested in continuing this line of research as well as new approaches in relation to the given topic. |
Volkhilfe |
| Diversity, community and civic engagement, migrant cultures | How to reach beyond the "usual suspects" and attract a more diverse audience and participants in the Community Work initiative? | Volkshilfe Community Work supports people who plan initiatives for a peaceful, solidary and inclusive co-existence in Vienna. They need research support on how to get closer to the diverse citizens and communities of the Favoriten district, how to widen their outreach and to go beyond the usual suspects for projects, programs and events. | Volkshilfe |
| Social media | Social media content management | Volkshilfe is looking for help with managing its social media content. Multilinguals welcome. This is an unpaid internship. | Volkshilfe |
| Social aspects of finance, non-profit finance | Social return on investment (SROI) calculation | Vielmehr is a Vienna-based human rights organization. Among others, they run a school, community space and buddy program for children and young adults with refugee background.
Similarly, SROI (social return on investment) calculations could be also useful for making a case with future donors. |
Vielmehr |
| Non-profit finance, planning, operational excellence, reporting | Improving operations, with special focus on financial planning and reporting | Vielmehr is doing some preliminary assessment of its capacities and systems for raising funds. Building on initial recommendations, Vielmehr would like to expand in the area of financial partnerships with corporations and other types of private donors. It is looking for a student to conduct further research on corporate social responsibility in Vienna and help develop an updated "business case" type document to be used with corporations and other private donors. This should include dollar handle calculations. Though this, a student will have an opportunity to learn about nonprofit organization programming and operations. | Vielmehr |
| Social movements, voluntarism | Volunteers’ motivation in the context of social movements and collective action. | Flüchtlinge Wilkommen (FlüWi), is an independent organization focusing on finding new homes for refugees in private accommodation: in flat shares or with families who offer a room. FlüWi put four students in contact with hosts having experience with long-term private housing for refugees arriving in Austria | Refugees Welcome Austria (FlüWI) |
| Housing, refugees, inclusion, discrimination | Qualitative Research on the benefits of co-housing for refugees regarding mechanisms of social inclusion. | Flüchtlinge Wilkommen (FlüWi), is an independent organization focusing on finding new homes for refugees in private accommodation: in flat shares or with families who offer a room. FlüWi put four students in contact with hosts having experience with long-term private housing for refugees arriving in Austria | Refugees Welcome Austria (FlüWI) |
| Housing, refugees, inclusion, discrimination | Discrimination of migrants and refugees in the Viennese housing market, and the barriers for refugees accessing the social housing | Flüchtlinge Wilkommen (FlüWi), is an independent organization focusing on finding new homes for refugees in private accommodation: in flat shares or with families who offer a room. FlüWi put four students in contact with hosts having experience with long-term private housing for refugees arriving in Austria | Refugees Welcome Austria (FlüWI) |
| Housing, refugees, inclusion, discrimination | A systematic review on existing literature on the benefits of homestay for the social inclusion of refugees. | Flüchtlinge Wilkommen (FlüWi), is an independent organization focusing on finding new homes for refugees in private accommodation: in flat shares or with families who offer a room. FlüWi put four students in contact with hosts having experience with long-term private housing for refugees arriving in Austria.
FlüWI is looking for research and bibliography on „homestay” format of asylum and refugee support. |
Refugees Welcome Austria (FlüWI) |
| Social economy | Internship: Social Economy | FlüWI is offering an internship around the topic of social economy. The tasks focus on project management and coordination. | Refugees Welcome Austria (FlüWI) |
| Social media | Internship: social media content management | FlüWI is looking for help with managing its social media content. Multilinguals welcome but German language is essential. | Refugees Welcome Austria (FlüWI) |