Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Founded in 1966
Institutes 6
Professorships 26
Students 1,450
Study programs 13
Further information can be found here.
Important personality
The recently deceased Hans Lenk was a highly decorated scholar of worldwide renown.
charisma. Probably the only Olympic champion in the history of the KIT (1960 in the
rowing eights), Lenk directed the fortunes of Karlsruhe Philosophy for more than
thirty years (1969-2003). He was particularly influential in the fields of philosophy of technology and sports
he had a significant influence.
Barlaam and Josaphat
The high medieval novel "Barlaam and Josaphat" by Rudolf von Ems (around 1225) is an example of migration literature and interculturality in the Middle Ages: it takes up the life story of the Buddha, which originated in India in the 5th century BCE and was first transformed into a Christian legend in Georgian via Persian and Arabic intermediaries. In the 11th century, a Latin version reached Europe, where it was translated into almost all vernacular languages, including German. The Department of Medieval Studies is working with DFG funding on an edition of the most successful German version, using modern digital humanities tools (especially Transkribus).
Sociology
Sociology studies how technology affects societies. We develop
models on how social bots spread disinformation in social networks on the internet. Interestingly, it turns out that social bots with many followers and a high level of activity are less successful at spreading disinformation. Inactive bots, on the other hand, are slower to convince their followers. They then act as a bridge to the rest of the network and spread disinformation further than the bot itself could. The illustration shows a bot that only has contact with 10% of users. Nevertheless, 70% adopt its disinformation.
Important personality
Prof. Dr. Franz Schnabel (1887- 1966) was the first political historian of modern times to treat the history of technology equally in his historiography - today the hallmark of Karlsruhe historiography. Schnabel stood by the Weimar democracy and was dismissed by the National Socialists in 1936. After 1945, he had a great impact on public history.
Institute of Sport and Sport Science
The Institute of Sport and Sport Science (IfSS) is an interdisciplinary sports science institution that is active in research, teaching, innovation and knowledge transfer. The research serves to gain sports science knowledge in the basic and applied areas. It is characterized by the interdisciplinary examination of physical activity and human movement, taking into account aspects of performance, health and technology.