Young researchers investigate social support in the age of globalization

Third phase of DFG Research Training Group "Transnational Social Support" successfully initiated

14.07.2014

Over the next three years 19 additional graduates will be involved in examining a broad range of aspects related to the topic of transnational social support at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). "We are delighted to have found such highly qualified young researchers through the selection process. We are convinced that they will make a long-term contribution to resolving the challenges facing transnational social support," said Professor Cornelia Schweppe of the JGU Institute of Education, coordinator of the Research Training Group "Transnational Social Support" funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The work that will be undertaken by the new doctoral candidates includes research into transnational support provided to foreign university students who have run into difficulties, into international adoptees and their search for their country of origin and birth parents, and research into the transnational generation of intervention-related data.

The successes of the research training group since its launch in 2008 have been impressive. "Some 50 graduate students have already been involved with the research training group. Many dissertations have been written; international and interdisciplinary networking is now standard practice within the group. We have organized a number of conferences, our work is widely published, and the Transnational Social Review – A Social Work Journal owes its inception to the research training group", explained Dr. Yvonne Bach, postdoctoral researcher at Mainz University, and Edward Omeni, doctoral candidate and member of the research training group.

The DFG Research Training Group 1474 "Transnational Social Support" is based at both the Institute of Education at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Institute for Social and Organizational Pedagogy of the Foundation University of Hildesheim.