Popakademie Talks in the winter semester 2025/2026

On Tuesday, October 21st 2025, the Popakademie Talks will kick off at 7 p.m. with Felix Birsner from the band WILLMAN: “Gender roles? Nope! A flawless resume? Nope! A perfect morning routine? Nope!” The Freiburg duo WILLMAN prefers to say “yes” to themselves, even at the risk of being uncool. On Tuesday, Felix Birsner will shed light on his personal assessment and experiences with the band WILLMAN. He will also discuss how the band has taken a critical stance on social issues.

On Tuesday, November 11th 2025, journalist and author Valerie Schönian will be a guest at the Popakademie Talks, where she will report on populism and radicalism in eastern Germany. She was born in 1990 in Gardelegen, Saxony-Anhalt, and grew up in Magdeburg. Schönian studied German philology and political science in Berlin and trained at the German School of Journalism in Munich. She has been awarded the Marlies Hesse Young Talent Prize, among others, and was nominated for the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Reporter Prize. Her books “Halleluja” and “Ostbewusstsein” were published by Piper-Verlag. Valerie Schönian has been working for DIE ZEIT since 2017, initially as an editor in the Leipzig office and, since 2019, as an author.

On Tuesday, December 16th 2025, cultural sociologist Dr. Anna Schwenck will speak on populism and music. Her research focuses on popular music and food as material for populist and national performances, and her new research project examines the extent to which moral capital is becoming more important for social advancement, self-optimization, and the search for meaning—under the conditions of a globally strengthening flexible capitalism. In the winter semester 2025/2026, she will be a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology Department of the Institute for Eastern European Studies at Freie Universität Berlin.

The Popakademie Talks series is free of charge and takes place at 7 p.m. in Room 001 of the Popakademie.