News

During the 2026 summer term, the Temporary Object Laboratory (TOL) in Building 5 at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg will be open on Tuesdays from 11:00 to 16:00. Following on from the TOLs on pain and stress, this edition focuses on the third S: sleep. As part of an interdisciplinary collaboration, research will be conducted on, amongst other things, EEG devices from the Historical Medical Technology Collection. From 11:00 to 13:00, the seminar "Culture|Techniques of the Sleep Laboratory", integrated into the TOL, will take place, during which some devices from the collection will be (re)commissioned and collection objects examined for their connections to current practices in sleep optimisation. All interested parties are warmly invited to drop by!
The TOL's findings on the topic of sleep will be presented at the collection conference, which is being organised by the 3ioS research team in Magdeburg from 10 to 12 September. The Sleep Salon will also take place as part of this event; further details will follow.

On Wednesday, 11 February 2026, the transSCAPE team cordially invites you to the sixthTown Hall Meeting. This open format brings together stakeholders from the the academic, urban, and cultural communities to actively shape the future of Magdeburg's Port of Science.

The Town Hall Meeting 2026+ aims to bring together two levels with the participants: local cultural perspectives and the tourist development of the area in the Science Harbour – and to develop these ideas further together.

The event starts at 5 p.m. at the Elbwerk, near Daniel's restaurant (Werner-Heisenberg-Straße 1, 39106 Magdeburg) . The focus will be on the 2026 summer cultural programme, which should be designed directly from the harbour with ideas, projects and experiences from the urban community. At the same time, the growing tourist and strategic importance of the Science Harbour for Saxony-Anhalt will be discussed in an international context. Registration is requested.

Since 2017, the Inklings-Gesellschaft für Literatur und Ästhetik e.V. (Inklings Society for Literature and Aesthetics) has been publishing a newsletter in irregular cycles, which is dedicated to the review of fantastic primary texts. The Inklings Society was founded in 1983 and is primarily dedicated to the study and dissemination of the works of the Inklings, a group of authors around J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton, but also to the analysis of the fantastic in literature, film and art in general.

From 2022 onwrds, the newsletter will be edited by Marthe-Siobhán Hecke, M.A., M.Ed. (University of Bonn), and Carsten Kullmann, M.A. (Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg), offerering a platform for the review of newly published primary texts (e.g. literature, film, series, etc.) that belong to a genre of the fantastic (e.g. fantasy, science fiction, horror, Gothic, dystopia). The editors are currently looking for student reviewers who would like to become part of the editorial team and contribute (academic) reviews of such primary texts for the newsletter. The reviews can be written in German or English. Review copies of literary works will be provided if possible. If you are interested, please contact Carsten Kullmann (). An overview of past newsletter issues can be found here.