Call 2023: Lecturers with Innovative Courses are Welcome

The University of Bremen in Germany starts the 26th Informatica Feminale – the International Summer University for Women in Computing. It will be on place in Bremen from August 16 to 31, 2023. Computer scientists from academia or industry and women working inter-disciplinarily in the field are cordially invited to develop and submit course offers for the summer university 2023.
Course offers can be submitted until February 06, 2023.

> Call for Contributions 2023 to Informatica Feminale

Topics from the broad field of Computer Science, ICT, and Informatics (theoretical, practical, technical or applied computing) are welcome. Additionally, our special topic will be digital sustainability with focus on ecological and social impacts of digital technologies. Desired courses could address for example protection of natural resources and optimization within ICT systems and infrastructures, green coding, energy efficiency, recycling and circular economy, regulations and standardization, human rights and labor law in production processes, participatory design, development and consumption of ICT products or services that better serve the common good. We also welcome offers that teach basics about the sustainability goals of the agendas 2030 in UN and EU as well as about the cross-sectional dimension of gender equality.

Lecturers could take the summer university as a test field for new teaching formats, and to get experience with highly engaged and interested participants.
The Informatica Feminale is part of the regular course program at the University of Bremen. Teaching assignments can be given to lecturers.

The women’s network Informatica Feminale and its sister Ingenieurinnen-Sommeruni are a place to exchange about technical and social developments, which we meet in our every-day life and which are designed by ourselves as technical experts. Proposals from the field of computer science and its interdisciplinary subjects are welcome. We especially invite teaching offers, which deal with applications of technical know-how in areas of life and work (for example within care, education, health, food, household, mobility, social networking, publicity, sports, militarization, etc.) from feminist perspectives. Submissions on topics such as gender, equality, technology and ethics are highly welcome.

A program committee will decide on the contributions. We particularly encourage international lecturers to apply. Course languages are German and English.

Companies with gender sensible organizational concepts and successful personal management strategies to promote women engineers to a broad spectrum of leading positions are invited to present their best practices to the participants of the Informatica Feminale. There will be various chances to meet graduates of computer science and engineering at both the parallel summer universities Informatica Feminale and Ingenieurinnen-Sommeruni. Concurrently, we are offering multiple possibilities for sponsorship.

International Summer Courses for Women in Computing

For the Summer University Informatica Feminale 2023 we cordially invite women students from all types of universities and colleges as well as women professionals interested in further training from all over the world! You will experience two weeks of professional studies and establish a network with women having manifold backgrounds in a friendly and stimulating environment at the University of Bremen.

Every year the Informatica Feminale offers compact teachings in computing and ICT.

Entering higher education, developing a student career, transition into labour market and lifelong academic learning are equally in the field of vision. Inter/national lecturers and students meet at the Informatica Feminale in Bremen, Germany to exchange.

Since 1998 the Summer University Informatica Feminale is part of the regular course program of Bremen University and organized by the Fachbereich Mathematik und Informatik (Department of Mathematics and Computer Science) and the Kompetenzzentrum Frauen in Naturwissenschaft und Technik der Universität Bremen (Center of Excellence Women in Science and Technology at Bremen University).

Funding comes predominately from the Professorinnenprogramm (joint initiatives of the German federal state and the Länder), the University of Bremen and from the Faculty.

[top]

A place for experimentation in teaching

In 1998 the University of Bremen started the first summer university for women in computing: Informatica Feminale is a place for experimentation and professional exchange, with the intention to develop and imply new impulses in Computer Science and Informatics.

The concept of Informatica Feminale was developed at Bremen University and has been transfered several times to national and international places. Informatica Feminale is organized at Bremen on a yearly basis. Every summer 200-250 students participate in some 50 courses.

[top]

Impressions of the Summer School 2022

Dear Participants, Lecturers, and Friends of the Summer Universities 2022,

we look back on a very special year. For the first time, the Informatica Feminale was organized in hybrid ways: online from 25 July to 5 August and physically in Bremen from 1 to 14 September 2022. Moreover, a special training program for lecturers about the topics privacy, facilitation, and protection from discrimination in teaching was offered online. On place in Bremen, lecturers and participants could visit an extensive social program. An additional highlight was the 25th anniversary of the Informatica Feminale, which was celebrated with a conference.

Our thanks…
As organizer team we give special thanks to our lecturers for their teaching with full engagement and collegiality.

Many thanks to all participants, who enriched the summer university with lively discussion and networking. We are especially pleased, that participants travelled to Bremen despite the many obstacles in 2022. Courses were without fees again and some grants could be given for the stay in Bremen.

Thank you so much to our sponsors who again supported us to realize some core elements of personal encounter for participants and lecturers.

Last but not least we want to thank our student assistants in Bremen. Without you, we would not have been able to realize the summer university.

Our look back…
The year 2022 was the first, to organize the Informatica Feminale and the “sister” Ingenieurinnen-Sommeruni in both the formats online and physically in Bremen. Nearly online courses were fully booked. Courses on place in Bremen were taken to smaller extent, presumably because the Corona situation was to worsen further in September. Many courses could realize settings with few students and very intensive learning. We as organizers got the wonderful chance to intensive personal exchange with our guests. In September on place, we could also arrange a general assembly of lecturers and participants and we received many valuable hints for the year 2023.
We are also pleased, that the lecturers again followed with interest our special online training program for them about the topics privacy, facilitation, and protection from discrimination in teaching.
In honor of 25 years of Informatica Feminale, the Center of Excellence Women in Science and Technology of the University of Bremen presented the conference „Women’s Spaces in Computer Science – Experiences and Perspectives“ on September 8th, 2022.

Our preview…
In 2023 we will emphasize the personal encounter and concentrate more on physical courses in Bremen. The summer university will be organized from 16-31 August 2023 at Bremen University. It will be our main activity. Additionally, we will arrange a smaller ‘meantime’ online course program during the whole year. We as organizers hope to comply with needs of lecturers and participants, as well as to strengthen again the core elements of teaching and learning with physical, personal meeting.

We invite you all to partcipate and look forward to welcoming you next summer in Bremen!

Greetings
Henrike Illig, Isabel Matthias, Veronika Oechtering

[top]