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Münster University is the most successful participating university of NRW debates with three victories in the second, sixth and eighth editions. Münster's students have taken part in the debates every year since the first edition (2015/16).
Dr. Matthias Freise has been a senior academic councillor since 2009 and a private lecturer at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Münster since 2018. His research focus is on the European integration process, in particular EU cohesion policy. In addition, Dr. Freise conducts research in the field of civil society and third sector research.
In Dr. Freise's seminar "The European Union in Political Discourse", Master's students from a total of three degree programmes come together: the Master of Political Science, the Master of Education Social Sciences and the Master of International and European Governance. The latter programme is a binational cooperation programme with Sciences Po Lille, from which a particularly large number of students are taking part in the seminar this year. In Münster, as in previous years, the students' preliminary debates will again be recorded so that video analyses can be carried out later.
The University of Bonn took part in the seventh edition of NRW Debated for the first time. In the same year, the Bonn team managed its first, and until now only, victory.
Since 2016, Dr. Domenica Dreyer-Plum has been working as a research assistant at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology at the University of Bonn. In the same year, she received her doctorate with a thesis on the border and asylum policy of the European Union. She is currently writing her habilitation on the legal culture of the European Union. Law, politics and the legitimation of European politics are among her teaching and research foci.
The Bonn team is participating in "NRW debattiert Europa" for the second time this year. Ten students from the Master's programme in Political Science are taking part in the seminar to prepare for the debating competition. The seminar teaches the basics of European politics as well as subject knowledge specifically tailored to the theses. The students prepare for the debate competition in teams and compete against each other in preliminary debates.
The University of Duisburg-Essen is the founder of NRW debattiert Europa and has participated in the debates every year since 2016. Their unique victory was achieved at the first edition.
Dr. Oliver Schwarz has worked at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Duisburg-Essen since 2004. Questions of European integration and European policy are at the centre of his research and teaching. He is the coordinator of the mentoring programme for the Bachelor's degree programme in Political Science and co-director of the Duisburg branch of the Southeast Europe Society (SOG). You can find more information about him on his university page or on his Twitter account.
The team from the University of Duisburg-Essen is made up of students from the Bachelor's degree programme in Political Science. The 29 students attending the seminar "European Integration and Politics in the European Multi-level System: NRW Debates Europe" with Dr. Oliver Schwarz learn about many European policy topics as well as the basics of the debating format and apply what they have learned in a preliminary debate.
With the exception of the 2nd and 6th editions, the University of Cologne has participated in NRW debattiert Europa since the first edition. Cologne won the trophy once in the winter semester 2017/18.
Sven Oliver Proksch is Professor of Political Science and Head of the Department of European and Multilevel Politics at the Cologne Centre for Comparative Politics at the University of Cologne. His research interests include questions of political representation in Europe, parliamentary institutions, party competition, and content analysis of political debates. He is co-author of the books Reforming the European Union: Realising the Impossible (Princeton University Press, 2012), The Politics of Parliamentary Debate: Parties, Rebels, and Representation (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and the textbook Foundations of European Politics: A Comparative Approach (Oxford University Press, 2021). Since 2021, he has been leading the European Research Council-funded project "Democracy without Majorities: Political Representation under Minority Rule" at the University of Cologne.
The students at the University of Cologne who are taking part in the debate competition are all studying for a Master's degree in Political Science and are attending the seminar "Institutional Reform of the European Union". The seminar consists of a total of 18 participants who are preparing for the competition together.
Teams from the University of Wuppertal have participated in the debates since the third edition of NRW debattiert Europa, except for the fifth edition.
Michael Franke has been working as a research assistant at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Wuppertal since 2019. He completed his doctorate at the University of Bochum, where he also worked as a research assistant at the Chair of International Politics. The dissertation "Government Policy in the World Financial Crisis" was published by Nomos in 2020. His research and teaching focus on the fields of international relations and international political economy. He is particularly interested in researching politics in times of economic and social crises.
The Bielefeld team competed for the first time in the eighth edition (2022/23) of NRW debattiert Europa.
Dr. Sonja Blum currently holds the Chair of Comparative Politics and Policy Analysis at Bielefeld University. She is also a Research Fellow at the Public Governance Institute of the KU Leuven. Her research interests include comparative public policy, social policy in the European Union, policy processes and policy design, and evidence and policy.
Dr. Norman Laws has been working on sustainability policy issues at Leuphana University for a long time. He is a lecturer at the universities of Bielefeld and Lüneburg. His main occupation is head of department for European policy speeches and publications at the State Chancellery of Hesse.
The seminar "The Future of Europe - A NRW-wide Debating Competition" is mainly attended by students from the BA Political Science at Bielefeld University. It is also offered as part of the qualification programme "Intensive Europe" at Bielefeld University. The seminar takes place as a block seminar in presence on different dates, where basics are worked out and also rehearsal debates are held.
Teams from the University of Düsseldorf have participated in the debates every year, since the first edition of NRW debattiert Europa, except for the fifth edition. A Düsseldorf team was able to achieve their unique victory in the fourth edition (2018/19).
Sabrina Proschmann has been a research assistant at the Institute of Modern History at the University of Düsseldorf since September 2017, initially within the Franco-German research project "Infrastructures, Infrastructural Cooperation and Continuity in European Integration: The European Postal and Telecommunications Union" until 2021. Before that, she studied Franco-German Studies in Regensburg and Clermont-Ferrand and in the Master European Studies in Flensburg. She completed her PhD in March 2022 on the topic of the European Postal Union of 1942 and cooperation in the postal system during the Second World War. Her research focuses on the recent history of European integration. (feel free to cut out what is too much).
The seminar "NRW debattiert Europa" brings together Bachelor students from the History and Transculturality programmes. The 9 students prepare together for the competition and will face a jury of experts on Europe from politics, science and administration in the preliminary debate.
The University of Bochum was the winner of the fifth edition of NRW debattiert Europa. Teams from Bochum have participated in the debates every year since the second edition, except for the seventh edition (2021/22).
Pauline Büsken completed her Master's degree in European Economy and Culture in 2021 and has since been working as a research assistant at the Chair of Comparative Politics at the University of Bochum. She is currently writing her dissertation on interest mediation in the German Bundestag. Her research focuses on interest groups and parliaments, with a particular interest in the sideline activities of MPs.
The seminar "NRW debattiert Europa" is being led by Pauline Büsken for the first time this semester and brings together seven Master's students from three different degree programmes: Social Science, EELP (Ethics, Economics, Law and Politics) and International Political Economy of East Asia. In the seminar, students learn about European policy issues as well as the basics of argumentation and debating. The students prepare in small groups for the final event in Duisburg and the preliminary debate in Bochum.
The team from the University of Siegen participated once in NRW debattiert Europa, at the fifth edition (2019/20). Originally, the Siegen team was supposed to take part in the third edition for the first time, but cancelled at short notice.
A team from Aachen only competed in the seventh edition (2021/22) of NRW debattiert Europa.
A team from the Open University in Hagen only competed once in the seventh edition (2021/22) of NRW debattiert Europa.