Professor Kirsten Mahlke
Kirsten Mahlke specialises in Romance philology and leads the project “DNR - Death Notification with Responsibility”.
The idea for this “Proof of Concept” application developed out of the ERC project “Narratives of Terror and Disappearance” (2010-2015). It will harness the insights regarding the psychosocial consequences of disappearance garnered there into a learning application that will help train German police officers in delivering death notifications.
Kirsten Mahlke studied Romance and Slavic literatures as well as ethnology in Frankfurt am Main and earned her doctorate with a thesis on early modern French reports on America. In 2008, she received her Habilitation (post-doctoral qualification) in literary theory and Romance literatures from the University of Konstanz. She was appointed to a professorship of Romance literatures at the University of Heidelberg in 2009, where she taught and researched into French and Spanish literatures until 2011. The same year, she returned to a the University of Konstanz for an appointment as Professor of Cultural Theory and Methodology in the Department of Literature.
Kirsten Mahlke is a member of the management team responsible for the master’s programme “Studies in European Culture” and supervises students and doctoral researchers specialising in Romance literatures.
In the summer semester 2017, together with Melanie Brand, she offered the transferable skills seminar “Die schlimmste Nachricht gut überbringen. Entwicklung eines Trainingmoduls für Polizisten zur Überbringung von Todesnachrichten“ (delivering bad news well - developing a training module for police officers tasked with delivering death notifications).
Links:
https://www.exzellenzcluster.uni-konstanz.de/mahlke.html?&L=1
http://www.eubuero.de/media/content/FiF/Portrait_Prof_Kirsten_Mahlke.pdf
Melanie Brand, MA
Melanie Brand is an academic staff member working on the project “DNR - Death Notification with Responsibility”. She is responsible for the conception and content of the blended learning course, conducting interviews and carrying out research. During a four-week internship completed as part of her sociology studies, she learned about the broad spectrum of tasks performed by the police, accompanying police officers during their daily routine. Her internship included stages in the public relations division, prevention/Kriminalpolizeiliche Beratungsstelle (advice centre), regional and patrol duty and a sojourn in the criminal investigation department’s Kriminalinspektion 1, which is tasked with investigating a range of specific crimes.
In the summer semester 2017, she worked with Kirsten Mahlke to offer the transferable skills course “Die schlimmste Nachricht gut überbringen. Entwicklung eines Trainingmoduls für Polizisten zur Überbringung von Todesnachrichten“ (delivering bad news well - developing a training module for police officers tasked with delivering death notifications).
In her doctoral project in ethnology, Melanie Brand examines institutional services and domestic violence in South Africa. For her multilocal ethnography, she conducts observations and interviews with staff working in local women’s centres as well as state-funded and independent centres that advise victims as well as perpetrators of domestic violence.
Links:
Dr Lena Reichmann
Lena Reichmann is a media didactics coordinator at the University of Konstanz. In this capacity, she supports teaching staff in implementing innovative e-learning projects. She is also a freelance consultant, moderator and coach.
For the “DNR - Death Notification with Responsiblity” project, she provides advice and support with regard to the didactic conception of the blended learning course. She generates multi-media teaching content and ensures that the classroom teaching and online self-study components dovetail with each other. A particular focus of her activities is on the skills-oriented selection of learning objectives, as well as the target group-specific implementation of these objectives via individually tailored teaching materials.
Lena Reichmann earned her doctorate with a thesis on the “Förderung von Sozialkapital und Gruppenzusammenhalt” (the promotion of social capital and group cohesion) from the University of Konstanz in 2011. She is a trained systemic coach, sports psychologist and outdoor educator. After several years working as an educational advisor in Switzerland, she returned to the University of Konstanz in 2017.
Links:
www.uni-konstanz.de/en/asd/team/
www.uni-konstanz.de/en/study/advice-and-services/central-student-advisory-service/team/
Sabine Schorpp
Sabine Schorpp is an undergraduate student assistant working on the “DNR - Death Notification with Responsibility” project. She is in the seventh semester of her psychology degree at the University of Konstanz.
Sabine Schorpp completed her internship semester at the Landesfeuerwehrschule Baden-Württemberg, where she helped train psychosocial emergency care practitioners. During her stay, she focused on the immediate physical and psychological reactions to terrible experiences exhibited by those affected as well as on the first responders’ strategies for coping with extraordinarily stressful situations.
As director of the Mini-Rock Festival’s awareness team, she is responsible for providing assistance to victims of sexualised violence, homophobia and racism.
Helene Pinsack
Helene Pinsack is a teacher education student studying German and French at the University of Konstanz and is currently undergoing training as a “German as a foreign language” instructor.
She is due to finish her studies in May 2018.
As an undergraduate student assistant, Helene Pinsack has worked on the DNR project since September 2016. Her duties include literature research and management, maintaining the DNR course’s ILIAS page and accounting duties in her area of responsibility. Helene Pinsack’s educational expertise, which she gained during her teacher training, has proven valuable to the didactic implementation of individual modules.