The current talk with Dr. Kubon is the ninth episode of our podcast “Five to Twelve”. In this format members of the Elite Graduate Program “Ethics of Textual Cultures” want to conduct critical discussions on current problems and political topics. Guests from different backgrounds like science, politics and culture are invited to discuss with our students, to shed light on the background of current topics, reflect and formulate visions. We recently spoke with Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Huber about the ethics of digitalization, with Prof. Dr. Petra Bendel about Europe's refugee policy and with Gregor Gysi about the Ukraine war and the future of international relations.
The current episode of our podcast features Dr. Sebastian Kubon. Together with Dr. Amrei Bahr and Dr. Kristin Eichhorn he launched #IchBinHanna on Twitter in June 2021. In response to an explanatory video from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, they decidedly opposed the “Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz”, which was introduced in 2007. The law created a so-called 'special employment law' in science and set a maximum limit for the temporary employment of scientific and artistic staff at German universities.
Following the previous campaign #95vsWissZeitVG on Twitter in 2020, in which scientists collected theses against the “Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz” and its problematic effects, thousands of scientists shared their personal stories in response to the fictional character “Hanna”. The Twitter debate has become a place for them to report how they themselves are affected by the precarious working conditions in science.
Our conversation with Dr. Sebastian Kubon
Dr. Kubon explains why the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's justification for a special right to short term employment in science jobs appears unjustified. The underlying paradigm that 'innovation is only possible through fluctuation' is not scientifically tenable and is based solely on “anecdotal evidence”. Dr. Kubon also elaborates on the second dogma, which is used to justify the current short-term employment practice and which science sees primarily as a qualification system.
The protest under the #IchBinHanna above all aims to propose constructive solutions. Dr. Kubon considers it particularly promising to fight for political representation of all affected groups, especially young academics and to reach a solution with long term employment for long term tasks.
You can listen to the entire conversation as well as all previous episodes of our podcast on our Homepage.
Text: Elite Graduate Program "Ethics of Textual Cultures"