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Archive Arts and Social Sciences 2023

40 articles
Newest Articles

Jahresauswahl

Article list Arts and Social Sciences

  • Neuropsychology

    Physical and Social Activities Promote Healthy Brain Aging

    Physical and social activities in old age have a protective effect on the entorhinal cortex. This important area of the brain, which plays a central role in memory, is impaired in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, even in the early stages.
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  • Interview — 100 years of ZS

    “There’s always a bit of madness involved”

    The Zürcher Studierendenzeitung, the UZH student newspaper, celebrates its 100-year anniversary in 2023. A book has been published to mark the occasion. We sat down with two of the book’s editors, Johannes Luther and Michael Kuratli, to find out what goes into making the ZS and to look back at the paper’s storied history.
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  • Pitfalls of Computer-Based Psychotherapy

    Smartphone apps and internet programs promise quick and easy help for mental health difficulties. Birgit Watzke and her team at the Department of Psychology are investigating these digital tools and identifying their uses and limits.
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  • Latin America Center Zurich

    High Demand for Latin American Studies

    The Latin America Center Zurich has grown since its founding eight years ago to become an established part of the UZH community. Now, building on its thriving program of activities aimed at both academic and lay audiences, the center’s range of classes and courses for UZH students is to be expanded.
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  • Media Transformation

    Internet Use as Everyday Religion on the Rise, Cyborgization Still in its Early Stages

    Artificial intelligence has already arrived, cyborg technologies for self-optimization have not yet. Especially among younger people, internet use is becoming an everyday digital religion. These are results of a representative survey of Swiss internet users conducted by UZH.
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  • Sociology

    How Often Intra-European Migrants Send Money Back Home

    How often do European migrants in Switzerland transfer money to their home countries, and how much money do they send? People from Portugal tend to send smaller amounts more often, while people from the UK are more likely to send larger amounts but do so less frequently.
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  • Globalization

    "We have a lot to lose"

    The Corona pandemic and the Ukraine war are the two most recent events that put globalization to the test. In this interview, political scientist Stefanie Walter and economist David Dorn discuss the challenges for global cooperation and its future.
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  • Media research

    Swiss Public Critical of AI in Journalism

    People in Switzerland generally have a critical attitude toward the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the production of news coverage. There is currently little appetite to consume and pay for AI-produced news.
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  • Developmental psychology

    In Pursuit of Happiness

    Get rich, do good, stay in shape: personal goals give us direction and purpose. They also change over our lifespan. For lasting happiness, the path is at least as important as the destination.
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  • History

    In Full Flow

    Today’s consumer society wouldn’t have developed without our ability to transport goods efficiently. UZH historian Monika Dommann has explored the history of logistics and the movement of materials.
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  • Ethnographic Museum

    Overlooked by Europe

    For decades, the Ethnographic Museum at UZH saw its mission in depicting the world around us. Now, the museum has started taking a critical look at the provenance of its collections in an attempt to reframe the history of its colonial-era exhibits.
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  • Media Research

    News Coverage in Major Media Outlets Is Politically Balanced

    A new study by the fög shows that news coverage in the major media outlets in particular is diverse and politically balanced. While proposals from governmental authorities are more likely to be covered positively, popular initiatives are given more overall attention.
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  • DSI Strategy Lab "Artificial Intelligence in Medicine"

    Our Digital Doppelgangers

    Artificial intelligence is also revolutionizing the world of medicine. In the future, we will be able to create digital twins that simulate various processes in our body. These digital representations of ourselves will be able to help us diagnose and treat diseases.
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  • MOASIS Study

    Mr. Deetlefs sings in Cavalleria rusticana

    Keeping active in later life keeps you healthy. MOASIS is a study conducted by UZH to examine how older people live and the effect this has on their fitness levels and well-being. The message is clear: use it or lose it.
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  • History

    Wide-Ranging Cases of Sexual Abuse in Swiss Catholic Church

    An independent team of historians was given unprecedented access to archives of the Swiss Catholic Church to investigate cases of sexual abuse within the church. The UZH researchers have now documented 1,002 cases of sexual abuse committed by Catholic clerics, church staff and members of Catholic orders that have occurred in Switzerland since the mid-20th century.
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  • Team research

    Under Pressure

    UZH psychologist Jan Schmutz researches how teams function in extreme environments and how they can thrive in the face of adversity. His research shows that teams succeed when their members feel safe and involved at work.
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  • Exhibition

    Seafaring Nomads of Patagonia Turn the Page

    For over 6,000 years, the indigenous Kawésqar people have lived in Patagonia in the south of Chile without destroying its ecosystem. An exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of UZH now showcases the lives of Kawésqar people and the troubling history of ethnographic shows.
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  • Portrait Ning Wang

    Tango and Ethics

    Ning Wang cuts a confident figure – in science, in international organizations and on the dance floor. The UZH ethicist and political scientist grew up in China and is now an advisor to the WEF. She develops ethical guidelines for, among other things, the use of drones.
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  • Us and ChatGPT

    “Like a Swiss army knife”

    ChatGPT is overrated as artificial intelligence and underrated as a language model, linguist Noah Bubenhofer says. He, philosopher Hans-Johann Glock, and computational linguist Rico Sennrich discuss how chatbots could change science, universities, and everyday work in the interview below.
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  • Linguistics

    Driven to Work by the “Fahri”

    The Swiss Amish in the US city of Berne still speak a language called Shwitzer. It derives from the Bernese German dialect spoken by the Emmental Anabaptists, but far from being archaic, Shwitzer is a highly innovative and dynamic language.
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  • Conspiracy Theories

    Nothing As It Seems

    Most conspiracy theories paint an absurd picture of the world. Religious studies scholars at UZH are exploring why people nevertheless believe them. According to philosopher Sebastian Schmidt, they point to a crisis of intellectual confidence.
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  • Media and Cultural Studies

    World-Weary Youngsters and a World in Crisis

    Coming-of-age stories are filled with young people exploring their identity amid a whirlwind of emotions. Today, this rite of passage is played out against a backdrop of climate change, war and energy crises. Young people suffer from global problems which they cannot solve – and for most, saving the world is not on their agenda.
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  • Evolution of Language

    Chimpanzees Combine Calls to Communicate New Meaning

    Similar to humans, chimpanzees combine vocalizations into larger communicatively meaningful structures. UZH researchers suggest that this ability might be evolutionarily more ancient than previously thought.
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  • What We Believe

    “Digital Trinity”

    Digitalization is taking on certain social functions of religion. Faith in divine decisions is being replaced by our faith in algorithmic selection, says communications researcher Michael Latzer.
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  • Sociology

    Misconceptions Put Women Off STEM Subjects

    Young women seem to be less drawn to degrees in science or technology. But what is putting them off? A sociological study at UZH has revealed that outdated gender stereotypes – such as supposed differences in analytical thinking – play a major role.
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  • Fake news

    Thinking More Slowly

    Fake news is everywhere and achieving a new level of quality thanks to artificial intelligence. Safeguarding ourselves against it isn’t easy, as many people prefer to believe plausible misinformation rather than complicated facts.
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  • Sinology

    China's Dream

    Rivalry between the US and China is increasing. With tensions running high, the European nations should make greater efforts to coordinate their China policies, says Simona Grano. In her new book, the sinologist and China expert examines how this trial of strength between the two superpowers is impacting smaller nations.
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  • Russian disinformation

    Putin’s Politics of Propaganda

    Millions of Russians live in a world of make-believe, hoodwinked by state propaganda. Alternative realities are the opium of the people and allow the elites to hold on to power, as shown by a look at history with Slavonic studies scholar Sylvia Sasse and historian Jeronim Perović.
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  • FAN Awards

    Heart Attacks, Science Fiction and Lessons from Organic Agriculture

    Three UZH junior researchers are honored with a FAN Award for their original work: Florian Wenzl for his research on personalized heart attack treatment, Jessica Imbach for her study of Chinese science fiction and Emilio Dal Re for revealing the unintended consequences of organic agriculture.
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  • Big Data

    Fighting back

    Google and Facebook sell our personal data and earn billions worth of profits by doing that. Economist Gregory Crawford and philosopher Francis Cheneval think that they ought to share the money with us and that we should have ownership rights over our personal data.
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  • Global Challenges

    Democracy and solidarity

    We are experiencing a moment of world history in which many certainties are being questioned and the ground under our feet feels shaky. But instead of wallowing in pessimism, we need to mobilize positive forces and face the problems head on, say legal scholar Matthias Mahlmann and political scientist Stefanie Walter.
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  • Provenance research at the Ethnographic Museum

    "Benin Bronzes" in the Spotlight

    Eight Swiss museums, including UZH’s Ethnographic Museum, have come together under the Swiss Benin Initiative (BIS) to work with Nigeria in investigating the provenance of their holdings from the historical kingdom of Benin. Alexis Malefakis, who curates the museum’s African collection, discusses the project, the limitations of provenance research, and the restitution of looted artefacts.
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  • Sociology

    Men Are Leaving Feminizing Occupations

    Many women and men still work in sex-typed occupations. One important reason for this is that men are selectively leaving occupations that are increasingly taken up by women, a recent study from the University of Zurich has shown.
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  • UZH Postdoc Team Award

    Checking the Pulse of Society

    The newly established Postdoc Team Award allows UZH to recognize outstanding interdisciplinary research. The inaugural award has gone to two teams, both of which are developing innovative approaches in healthcare research, such as linking pupil size to stress resilience or exploring what tweets can reveal about our mental health.
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Jahresauswahl