More than just listening

If possible, attend all seven events. Listen carefully, take notes and, ideally, take part in the question-and-answer session afterwards. The two go hand in hand, as an academic event thrives on the exchange and interaction between the speaker and the audience.

After the lecture, take a moment to reflect, look through your notes and consider what particularly surprised, convinced, annoyed or was missing for you. It is best to do this by discussing it with others. Reflecting on the lectures is intended to encourage you to engage with the topic (or even a meta-topic) and enable you to develop a research question for your assessment.

Your examination assignment: Select two quotes that you find particularly interesting from two different sessions and analyse them academically, taking into account the overarching theme ‘What is normal?’. Please produce a written assignment of between ten and twelve pages on this topic.

Conduct thorough research into academic sources. Feel free to use the speakers’ publications as a starting point. Please follow our guidelines on academic writing from our accompanying OPAL course, in particular our citation guidelines – including when using AI tools! Submit your examination assignment as a PDF file via OPAL by 15 August 2025 at the latest.

Registration for the examination: Please register for the examination independently and bindingly. Registration is only possible between 15 July and 7 August 2025.

We won’t leave you to your own devices during the writing process: before you upload your assignment as a PDF to OPAL on 15 August 25, you can take part in several online information and consultation sessions:

17 March | 5.30 pm – 7.00 pm | Procedure and content of the assessment | Join the session now

27 May | 5.30 pm – 7.00 pm | Consultation on the assessment | Join the session now

23 June | 5.30 pm – 7.00 pm | Consultation on the examination | Join the session now

15 July | 5.30 pm – 7.00 pm | Exam preparation | Join the meeting now

Exam registration

Please register for the examination yourself and make a binding commitment to sit it. Registration is only possible between 15 July and 7 August 2025.

Submission of your examination work

Please upload your written examination paper as a PDF to OPAL by 15 August 2025 at the latest.

The lecture counts towards the ‘General Studies (Studium Generale)’ sub-module (or the ‘Key Skills’ or ‘Digitalisation and Society’ module) at the Institute for Competence, Communication and Languages (IKKS), worth 2.5 credits.