Immersed in a sea of words: Poetic metaphors

It’s a familiar situation: We gaze at a poem and wonder – what was the author trying to express? What was his or her intention in using that specific metaphor? And how should we, as readers, interpret it? Over the next two years, Carina Rasse, holder of the DOC-scholarship awarded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and currently working at the Department of English, will explore how metaphors emerge and how they are deciphered by readers.

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Health consumption on the Internet and consulting Doctor Google

Mediatisation has fundamentally transformed our interactions with medical professionals, our attitude to our own health, and our communication about health-related topics. In her research, Isabell Koinig deals with health communication. She addressed some of the phenomena which research has only taken up selectively, and whether she turns to Google herself when she feels a bit under the weather.

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Psychologically healthy children are more likely to grow into healthy adults


Nearly half of all mental illnesses have their origins in the early childhood years of the affected persons. In adulthood, these often emerge as chronic illnesses with negative consequences for the individual’s social life, economic productivity, and quality of life.

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When will we (finally) choose a better world?

The world appears to lie in ruins: Climate change is making itself felt in environmental disasters. People in need are heading north; politics responds with nationalism. The concept of “do-gooders” bears negative connotations, although what we do need is people doing “good”; people who put their actions at the service of a better world. We spoke to the cognitive psychologist Stephan Dickert and the philosopher Alice Pechriggl about why it is so difficult to implement a change of mind.

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