Venia Legendi for TA researcher

A milestone for establishing technology assessment in teaching: Dirk Scheer is the first scientist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to be authorized to hold lectures on TA after successfully completing his habilitation.
Bild von Dirk Scheer
First KIT scientist authorized to hold lectures on the subject of technology assessment: ITAS senior researcher Dirk Scheer. (Source: Markus Breig/KIT)

As a senior researcher at ITAS, Dirk Scheer has been investigating topics of social science energy research, the acceptance of technologies as well as participation and knowledge transfer in various projects since 2017. In his habilitation at the KIT Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, which has now been completed, he dealt with various aspects related to the German energy transition. He focused on methodological innovations with regard to new approaches of mixed-method design, the reception of scientific expertise in politics and society, and the use of new key technologies. The central question is how technology assessment can gain new knowledge for action and orientation for a successful energy transition.

In addition to supervising doctoral students at ITAS, Dirk Scheer will now, on completion of his habilitation, also be increasingly involved in the teaching activities of ITAS, which has been offering an elective subject TA together with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for a year now. “TA has many references to other disciplines that need to be communicated,” Dirk Scheer is convinced. “The further development of the university subject TA will now depend on getting students interested in the methods and contents of the subject and giving them the TA tools for their later working environments,” says the political scientist. (09.12.2022)

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