KAS-Fellowship
Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Kerstin Rolfes
Each year, the KAS Fellowship integrates an important person and their external perspective into our foundation’s work.
Integration into the Foundation’s Work
The Fellowship of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, in short KAS-Fellowship, aims at involving a person of the public with their view from the outside into the work of the foundation. The selection of experts for the Fellowship is motivated interdisciplinarily and with the intention of influencing the tasks and aims of the foundation’s projects by future-oriented, but also by admonishing voices of the society. Self-critical reflection is essential in order to do justice to our core work, the political education. To take up social change as an element of our own development is at the same time the mission and the challenge of the KAS Fellowship. In their role as KAS-Fellow, the sociologist Armin Nassehi (KAS Fellow 2021) and the diplomat and security expert Christoph Heusgen (KAS Fellow 2022) will be followed by the marine researcher Antje Boetius, starting January 2023.
KAS Fellow 2023: Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius
Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius is Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute/Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and Professor of Geomicrobiology at the University of Bremen. In her award-winning work, Antje Boetius addresses issues including biodiversity, the effects of climate change, the relationship between humans and nature, and science communication. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation hopes that her fellowship will provide impetus for its work in the fields of sustainability, climate protection and innovation. For the foundation's chairman, Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, Antje Boetius is “an outstanding scientific personality who will support the foundation in formulating new political answers to central questions about the future and highlighting the importance of science for a democratic society.”
Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius is looking forward to working with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and explains: “An invitation by Norbert Lammert to bring new horizons and a breeze of sea air to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation is an offer impossible to refuse. For a long time I have been interested in the questions of why a special passion for the preservation and promotion of the network of life should not be anchored in the "conservative". And, how KAS as an international institution can bring more empathy and ambition for diversity and collaboration to its community of values, which lacks voices in this regard. So as the Fellow 2023, I am very excited about our joint expedition.”
Interview with our KAS Fellow 2023, Professor Antje Boetius
(only in German)
YouTube, Onlinekas
Former KAS Fellows
The following overview will provide information about and video interviews on our former KAS Fellows.
2021/2022: Prof. Dr. Christoph Heusgen
Interview with our KAS Fellow 2022, Professor Christoph Heusgen
(only in German)
YouTube, Onlinekas
Ambassador Christoph Heusgen was for many years the foreign policy advisor to German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel and Germany's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York from 2017 to 2021. As a renowned expert on German foreign and security policy, he currently holds the position of Chairman of the Munich Security Conference. During his time as a KAS-Fellow 2022, Dr. Heusgen advised and supported the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, particularly on the topic of security. This included over thirty appearances and participations in a wide variety of formats, such as the classic panel discussions and talks in coordination with the KAS foreign offices, but also podcast talks and exchanges on Twitter spaces.
2020/2021: Prof. Dr. Armin Nassehi
Interview with our KAS Fellow 2020/2021 Professor Armin Nassehi
(only in German)
YouTube, Onlinekas
Professor Armin Nassehi holds the chair at the Institute for Sociology at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He was born in Tübingen and grow up in Gelsenkirchen and Teheran. In Munich, he teaches and researches in the area of General Sociology and Social Theory, with a special focus on culture, politics and knowledge production. Professor Armin Nassehi is one of the leading academic voices in social discourse. He has received multiple awards for his achievements and efforts in making sociological analyses on current social problems understandable for the wider public. With this role and function, he supported the foundation for one year as the first KAS Fellow.
