Deputy Professor Dr. Simona Szakács -Behling

2019 – 2024: “Transnationale Solidaritäten: Eine vergleichende Studie von Schulen mit europäischem Ethos“, funded by DFG (Principal Investigator)

2017 – 2022: “globalDAS: Global Citizenship Education in German Schools Abroad” & “DAS@GEI” funded by the Federal Foreign Office and GEI (scientific coordination and research)

2018 – 2020: “The Representation of Roma in European Curricula and Textbooks”, funded by the Council of Europe & Roma Education Fund (scientific coordination and research)

2018: “Prävention von gewalttätigem Extremismus durch Bildung (PVE-E)”, granted by BMBF (research)

2014 – 2015: “Imagining the Cold War: Schooled Depictions of “East” and “West” in Pre- and Post-1989 Romanian Education”, funded by DAAD (research fellowship)

2010: “Europäisierung, multiple Modernitäten und kollektive Identitäten – Religion, Nation und Ethnizität im erweiterten Europa”, University of Göttingen & GEI (research fellowship)

2008 – 2011: “The Nation, Region and the World: A Comparative and Longitudinal Study of Curricula and Schoolbooks in Europe and Asia” PIs: Prof. Dr. Yasemin Soysal (University of Essex) & Prof. Dr. Suk-Ying Wong (Chinese University of Hong Kong), funded by Economic and Social Research Council UK and Research Grant Council HK (research)

Awards
2022: “Elizabeth Sherman Swing Award” for outstanding work in the field of policy & practice of multiculturalism or multilingualism in Europe, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES-US)

2014: “Georg-Eckert-Award of Excellence in International Educational Media Research”, Georg Eckert Institute

Grants
2019: Young Researcher Mobility Grant, Romanian Government Agency for Higher Education and Research, Collaborative Research Project at the State University of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest (Romania)

2014 – 2015: DAAD-Leibniz Postdoctoral Fellowship

2012: Research grant from the Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong SAR)

2010: GEI grant for international comparative textbook research

2007 – 2010: Departmental Research Scholarship, Department of Sociology, University of Essex (UK)

2004/2005: Full Study Fellowship, Faculty of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University (Hungary)

2002: Mobility Grant, Leonardo da Vinci Programme of the European Union, Prato (Italy)

Monographs

Szakács, S. (2018). Europe in the Classroom: World Culture and Nation-Building in Post-Socialist Romania. Palgrave Macmillan.

Christodoulou, E. & Szakács, S. (2018). Preventing Violent Extremism through Education: International and German Approaches. Georg-Eckert-Institut.

Christodoulou, E. & Szakács, S. (2019). Prävention von gewalttätigem Extremismus durch Bildung: Internationale und deutsche Ansätze. Georg-Eckert-Institut.

Journal articles (blind peer reviewed)

Szakács-Behling, S. & Hornberg, S. (in press). Transformation and Transnationalisation of schooling: Wherein lies the transformative potential of Global Citizenship Education? ZEP – Die Zeitschrift für internationale Bildungsforschung und Entwicklungspädagogik, 3/2023

Keßler, C. I., & Szakács-Behling, S. (2023). (Aus-)Handlungen des Transnationalen: Diskursive Praktiken auf Schulwebsites verschiedener Bildungssegmente. Sozialer Sinn, 24(2), 185–210. (Themenschwerpunkt „Ambivalenzen transnationaler Bildung“)

Pecak, M., Spielhaus, R., & Szakács-Behling, S. (2022). Between Antigypsyism and Human Rights Education: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representations of the Roma Holocaust in European Textbooks. Critical Romani Studies, 4(2), 100-120. 

Szakács-Behling, S. (2022). Schooling for transnational solidarity? A comparison of differently Europeanising school curricula in Germany. Globalisation, Societies, and Education, 20(4), 492-507.

Szakács-Behling, S., & Rusu, M. S. (2019). Nurturing Romanian Socialists: Reading Primers Before, During and After the Second World War. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 11(1), 97-117.

Szakács, S. (2015). Europeanization qua Institutionalization of World Culture: The Case of Post-1989 Romanian Education. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 23(2): 208-221.

Szakács, S. (2014). Changing Patterns of Nation-Building: Educational Reform Narratives in Post-Socialist Romania. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 14(1): 119-145.

Szakács, S. (2013). Converging with World Trends: The Emergence of the Cosmopolitan Citizen in Post-Socialist Romanian Citizenship Education. Journal of Social Science Education, 12 (4): 6-22.

Szakács, S. (2011). Old Wine Into New Bottles? Europeanization and Diversity in Multi-Ethnic Romanian Schools. Multicultural Education Review, 3(1), 101-131.

Soysal, Y. N., & Szakács, S. (2010). Reconceptualizing the Republic: Diversity and Education in France, 1945-2008. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, XLI(1), 97-115.

Szakács, S. (2010). The Making of the „Soft Villain“ in a Time Magazine Headline. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 12:3(20), 47-59.

Szakács, S. (2007). Now and Then: National Identity Construction in Romanian History. A Comparative Study of Communist and Post-Communist School Textbooks. Internationale Schulbuchforschung, 29(1), 23-47.

Ivan, L., & Szakács, S. (2002). Romaniansʼ social representations of NATO and EU. Romanian Journal of Sociology, 13(1-2), 80-103.

Contributions to edited volumes and journal special issues (peer reviewed)

Hornberg, S. & Szakács-Behling, S. (i.E.). Schule als Ort multipler (Bildungs-)Räume. In T. Bohl, A. Gröschner, A. Scheunpflug & M. Syring (Eds.), Studienbuch Bildungswissenschaften, Band 2. Klinkhardt  

Szakács-Behling, S. & Keßler, C. I. (i.E. 2023). Das Transnationale im virtuellen Raum: Was uns Online-Darstellungen schulischer Auslandsprogramme über die Institution Schule verraten. In M. Hummrich & M. Hinrichsen (Eds.), Schule und Transnationalisierung. Erziehungswissenschaftliche Verhältnisbestimmungen. Springer VS.

Szakács-Behling, S. (2022). Inter or Trans-nationalisation in, or of, schooling? A critical overview of conflating terminologies, empirical foci, and suggested definitions. In S. Hornberg, & M. Buddeberg (Eds.), Schule als Ort gesellschaftlicher Teilhabe (pp.17-40). Waxmann.

Szakács-Behling, S. (2021). Understanding solidarity in differently (trans)national settings: a study of Europe-oriented schools in Germany. In L. Heidrich, Y. Karakaşoğlu, P. Mecheril, & S. Shure (Eds.), Regimes of Belonging – Schools – Migrations. Teaching in Transnational Constellations (pp. 325–343). Springer VS.

Szakács-Behling, S.& Hornberg, S. (Eds.) (2021). Editorial. Tertium Comparationis: Journal für International und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft, 26(2), 97-99.

Szakács-Behling, S., Riggan, J., & Akar, B. (2021). Introduction: Rethinking Global Citizenship Education from the ground up: Intentions, power, and accidents. Tertium Comparationis: Journal für International und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft, 26(2), 100-115.

Riggan, J., & Szakács-Behling, S. (2021). Billions of unheard voices“: Concluding Thoughts to an Unexpected Journey. Tertium Comparationis: Journal für International und Interkulturell Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft, 26(2), 223-227.

Szakács-Behling, S., Bock, A., Keßler, C. I., Macgilchrist, F., & Spielhaus, R. (2021). Global Citizenship in Motion: Comparing Cross-Border Practices in German Schools Abroad. In E. Klerides & S. Carney (Eds.), Identities and Education. Comparative Perspectives in Times of Crisis (pp. 95-116). Bloomsbury Academic. 

Keßler, C. I., & Szakács-Behling, S. (2020). Researching the Transnational and Transnationalizing the Research: Towards a Methodological Turn. In C. Machold, A. Messerschmidt, & S. Hornberg (Eds.), Jenseits des Nationalen? Erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektiven (pp. 183-199). B. Budrich.

Sroka, W., & Szakács-Behling, S. (2019). Introduction: Reading Primers and Political Change in European Countries around 1945. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 11(1), 1-13.

Szakács, S. (2018). Transnational identities and values in textbooks and curricula. In Fuchs, E. and Bock, A. (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies. Palgrave Macmillan.

Szakács, S. (2016). Europeanization qua Institutionalization of World Culture: Examples from Post-1989 Romanian Education. In C. Rumford and D. Buhari-Gulmez (Eds.), Europe and World Society (pp. 40-53). Routledge.

Szakács, S. (2016). 1989 as Gateway to the World? The Universalisation of Diversity and the Construction of the ‘New’ Citizen in Romanian Civic Education In E. Matthes & S. Schütze (Eds.), „1989“ und Bildungsmedien / „1989“ and Educational Media (pp. 59-71). Klinkhardt.

Soysal, Y., & Szakács, S. (2010). Projections of Diversity in Citizenship Education. In C. Hintermann & C. Johansson (Eds.), Migration and Memory Representations of Migration in Europe since 1960 (pp. 77-91). Transaction Publishers.

Szakács, S. (2004). Stereotipurile de gen în reclamele tv (Geschlechterstereotypen in Fernsehwerbung). In S. Chelcea (Ed.), Comunicarea nonverbală în spaţiul public (Nonverbale Kommunikation im öffentlichen Raum) (pp. 129-146). Tritonic Publishing House.

Book Reviews

Szakács-Behling, S. (2022). Book Review of Gregor Lang-Wojtasik‘s (Ed.) „Bildung für eine Welt in Transformation. Global Citizenship Education als Chance für die Weltgesellschaft.“ Erziehungswissenschaftliche Revue (EWR) 21 (2022), No. 2 (available here).

Szakács-Behling, S. (2022). Book Review of Yossi Harpaz’s „Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset.“ International Studies in Sociology of Education, 31(3):386-395.

Szakács, S. (2019). Book Review of Iveta Silova, Nelli Piattoeva, Zsuzsa Millei (Eds.) „Childhood and Schooling in (Post)Socialist Societies: Memories of Everyday Life“. European Education, 51(1), 89-91.

Szakács, S. (2019). Book review of Onoriu Colacel’s „Postcolonial Readings of Romanian Identity Narratives.“ National Identities, 21(2): 214-217.

Szakács, S. (2010). Book Review of William Outhwaiteʼs „European Society“. European Societies, 12(4), 597-598.

Szakács, S. (2009). Book Review of Werner Schiffauer et al. (eds.) „Civil enculturation: Nation-State, School and Ethnic Difference in The Netherlands, Britain, Germany, and France“ (Zivile Enkulturation: Nationalstaat, Schule und ethnische Differenz in den Niederlanden, Großbritannien, Deutschland und Frankreich). Sociologie Românească (Rumänische Soziologie), 1, 152-155.

Other

Spielhaus, R., Szakács-Behling, S., Ailincai, A., Hopson, V., Pecak, M. (2020). The Representation of Roma in European Curricula and Textbooks: Analytical Report, Europarat.

Szakács-Behling, S. (2019). Old Habits Die Hard: Two moves to go ‚beyond-the-national‘ in educational research, Research Intelligence (BERA Magazine), Special Issue „New perspectives on international, intercultural and global education“, ed. N. Savvides und P. Jain.

Soysal, Y.N. & Szakács-Behling, S. [2011](2019), „Citizenship“ In Oxford Bibliographies Online (obo) Sociology.

Fuchs, E. & Szakács, S. (2016). Casting a wider net: the case for a comparative framework with a transnational twist, in Reading Primers International (RPI) no 12.

Lectures (selection)

07/2023 „Transnationalities of schooling: (Re)mapping border-crossing dynamics in variously privileged German schools“. Lecture Series Brown Bag Lecturer Series Education in the Migration Society, Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University Kaiserslautern-Landau

04/2023 “Schule im Spannungsfeld von Prozessen der Transnationalisierung – Makro-, Meso- und Mikroperspektiven”, Research Colloquium Edu.GR-Project Transnational Everyday Life – Transnational Education? Possibility Spaces of European Integration in Upbringing, Education and Socialisation, University of Trier

07/2022 „Transnationalisation in, and of, schooling: what’s Europe got to do with it?“ Lecture Series “Transnationalisation in Schools and Education”, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main

06/2022 „Quo vadis ‚transnational education spaces‘? Re-envisioning the comparative study of transnationalism in education“, VIE-Research Seminar, Humboldt-University, Berlin

04/2022  “‘What would Marx say?’ Illuminating Solidarity Logics across transnational School Settings marked by Privilege and Disadvantage in Germany”. CIES 2022: Illuminating the Power of Idealism, Minneapolis, USA (Elizabeth Sherman Swing Award)

03/2022 “Erwartungen und Mobilisierungen des Transnationalen im virtuellen Raum: Der Fall schulischer Auslandsstudienprogramme an deutschen Schulen“.DGfE 2022 Congress: Ent|Grenz|Ungen, Bremen (with Catharina I. Kessler)

03/2022  “Revisiting Transnational Education Spaces: Interdisciplinary Boundary Transgressions building on the case of state Europaschulen in Germany”. DGfE 2022 Congress: Ent|Grenz|Ungen, Bremen (with Sabine Hornberg)

05/2021  “Comparing Modes of Being Transnational in the German School Sector: The Case of Europe(an) Schools” [Online]. Crossing Borders and Interconnections. Educational science perspectives on school and transnationalisation Conference. Frankfurt

Workshop and conference organization

2022: “De/bordering education in polarizing times: sociological, comparative, and pedagogical perspectives on global citizenship and cosmopolitan identities”, Symposium organisation with Sabine Hornberg at the DGfE 2022 Congress “Entgrenzungen.”

2021: Co-organization of the Winter School “Multiperspektivität im Geschichtsunterricht“, with Dr. Vasile Dumbrava (Moldova Institut Leipzig)

2021: “Nothing about us, without us“: the potentials and challenges of researching Roma education at the intersection between scientific knowledge, activism, and policymaking“, Panel Organisation with Christian Brüggemann, Annual conference of the Intercultural and International Comparative Education Section DGfE: Grenzen auflösen – Grenzen ziehen. Grenzbearbeitungen zwischen Erziehungswissenschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft

2020: “Global citizens, corporate actors, or solidary individuals? The (un)intended uses and effects of international(ising) education in times of change, mobility and migration“, Panel Organisation with Yasemin Soysal at CIES 2020, Miami, USA (canceled due to COVID19 pandemic)

2019: “Re-thinking & Researching Transnational Education Spaces (TES)“, Workshop organization with Sabine Hornberg, GEI & TU Dortmund

2015: “After the War – A New Beginning? A Comparative Examination of Reading Primers Published and Used in 1945 in Europe“, organization of the international conference with Wendelin Sroka, GEI, Braunschweig

04/2021  “The Making of Solidarities in Transnational Educational Spaces: Comparative Perspectives from the Everyday of Schools Promoting a European Ethos in Germany“ [Online]. CIES 2021: Social Responsibility within Changing Contexts, Seattle, USA

02/2021  “Transnationalism and transnationalisation in schools in the ‚age of migration‘: methodological, conceptual and empirical considerations“, Interdisziplinäre Vortragsreihe Bildungsforschung, University of Duisburg-Essen

10/2020  “The European Dimension in Education: The construction of a European Identity in History Schoolbooks from comparative perspective „, Impulsvortrag für Geschichtslehrer, Schulbuchautoren und Ministerialbeamte, Seminar „Kontroverse Themen unterrichten“, Moldova Institut Leipzig

03/2020  “Solidarity with whom and why? The Making of global, European and individual subjectivities in schools promoting a European ethos“, CIES 2020, Miami, USA

11/2019  “Global Citizenship Education in German Schools Abroad: possibilities and challenges of cross-border solidarity engagements“, The 11th German-Israeli Frontiers of Humanities Symposium organized by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Jerusalem, Israel

10/2018  “Envisioning Transnational Solidarities? Introducing a Comparative Study of Europe-rich Schools in Germany“, international conference “Failing Identities, Schools and Migrations: Teaching in (trans)national Constellations“, University of Bremen

06/2018  “Transnationale Ansätze in der Schulforschung: Die Konturen einer Forschungsagenda“, QualiNET, University of Göttingen

05/2018  “Global Citizenship in Motion: Comparing Practices and Policies in German Schools Worldwide“, Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE), Nikosia, Zypern

08/2017  “Europeanisation Without Europe? The Institutionalisation Of World Culture In The Post-1989 Romanian School“, ECER 2017 (European Conference on Educational Research 2017), Copenhagen, Denmark           

12/2015 “Imagining the Cold War – Socialist and Post-Socialist Depictions of “East“ and “West“ in Romanian Textbooks“, GEI colloquium, Braunschweig

09/2014 “Making Sense of 1989: Romanian Educational Change from a Wider World Perspective“, Tagung der Internationalen Gesellschaft für historische und systematische Schulbuch- und Bildungsmedienforschung, Berlin

02/2013  “Converging with World Trends: The Emergence of the Cosmopolitan Citizen in Post-Socialist Romanian Civic Education“, conference “Collective Identity and Practices of Citizenship in Post-communism“, Willy-Brandt-Zentrum, University of Wroclaw, Poland

09/2012 “Debating National Education: A European perspective and its implications for Hong Kong“, seminar series of the Department of Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR

05/2011  “Europeanization and Diversity in Multi-Ethnic Romanian Schools“, Korean Association for Multicultural Education Conference, Jeonju City, Südkorea

09/2010  “Probing Europeanization in the Romanian school: Identity-Making processes at classroom level“, ECPR conference, Dublin, Ireland

09/2009  “Schooling the ‚other‘: creating European citizens in a multi-ethnic Transylvanian town“, European Sociological Association Conference, Lisbon, Portugal

Fall Trimester 2023:

MA Modul BuErz 10001 Erziehung, Staat und Gesellschaft im Kontext von Globalisierungs- und Migrationsprozessen / Education, state and society in the context of globalisation and migration processes

12.1005 Schule jenseits des Nationalstaates: Makro- und Mesoperspektiven auf die formale Bildung / School beyond the Nation State: Macro and Meso Perspectives on Formal Education

12.1006 Schule jenseits des Nationalstaates: Makro- und Mesoperspektiven auf die formale Bildung / School beyond the Nation State: Macro and Meso Perspectives on Formal Education

Spring Trimester 2023:

BA Module BuErz 03001 Wissenschaftstheoretische, geistes-und erfahrungswissenschaftliche Grundlagen der Erziehungswissenschaft

12.305 Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftliche Ansätze der Erziehungswissenschaft: Comparative and Historical Educational Media Research-Methodological Approaches and their Application

BA Module BuErz 05001 Erziehung, Bildung und Sozialisation im Kontext von Globalisierungs- und Migrationsprozessen

12.603 Bildungssysteme & Sozialisationsinstanzen im innerstaatlichen und internationalen Vergleich: Vergleichende Bildungsforschung am Wendepunkt. Geschichte, methodologisches Instrumentarium und aktuelle theoretische Debatten

12.604 Bildungssysteme & Sozialisationsinstanzen im innerstaatlichen und internationalen Vergleich: Vergleichende Bildungsforschung am Wendepunkt. Geschichte, methodologisches Instrumentarium und aktuelle theoretische Debatten

Winter Trimester 2023:

BA Module BuErz 05001 Erziehung, Bildung und Sozialisation im Kontext von Globalisierungs- und Migrationsprozessen

12.507 Migration und Bildung in Forschung und Praxis: Schlüsselbegriffe, Debatten, Beispiele

12.508 Migration und Bildung in Forschung und Praxis: Schlüsselbegriffe, Debatten, Beispiele

MA Modul BuErz 10001 Erziehung, Staat und Gesellschaft im Kontext von Globalisierungs- und Migrationsprozessen

12.1102 Bildungsbiographien, Sozialisation und Ungleichheit im Kontext von (Trans-)Migration

Fall Trimester 2022:

BA Module Modul BuErz 06001 Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge und Diskurse in der Allgemeinen Erziehungswissenschaft

12.701 Migrant*innen, Migration, „Andere“ – Offizielle Wissensproduktion in deutschen Bildungsmedien

MA Module BuErz 10001 Erziehung, Staat und Gesellschaft im Kontext von Globalisierungs- und Migrationsprozessen

12.1005 Schule jenseits des Nationalstaates: Grenzüberschreitende Aspekte der formalen Bildung im Kontext von Heterogenität und Globalisierung

12.1007 Schule jenseits des Nationalstaates: Grenzüberschreitende Aspekte der formalen Bildung im Kontext von Heterogenität und Globalisierung