Dalia Obiedat, Research Associate and PhD Candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Bonn, and affiliated with the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft (FIW), has been selected among the IRCAI Global Top 100 with her project “Responsible Surrogate AI Framework: Safe Digital Belonging for Marginalized Voices,” which received an “Excellent” rating. The selection is part of the Global Top 100: AI for SDGs Index of the International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI), under the auspices of UNESCO. The international initiative recognises innovative AI projects that contribute to addressing global challenges and advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The selected project builds on Obiedat’s doctoral research on identity shifting and the negotiation of religion, sexuality, and desire among Arab ex-Muslims in online spaces. Her dissertation examines how individuals navigate the social, emotional, and relational consequences of leaving Islam through digitally mediated environments, including online communities, anonymous confession spaces, and interactions with conversational AI. A central part of this research is the chapter “Surrogate Infrastructures of Recognition: Post-Deconversion Reconstruction among Arab Ex-Muslims.” The chapter examines how Arab ex-Muslims reconstruct aspects of their social and emotional lives following deconversion, with particular attention to belonging, identity, intimacy, kinship, religious afterlives, morality, and meaning. It develops the concept of Surrogate Infrastructures of Recognition to examine how digitally mediated environments can provide spaces in which participants disclose experiences, negotiate identities, and seek recognition following the disruption of established religious and social relationships. Building on these ethnographic findings, the Responsible Surrogate AI Framework translates insights from the lived experiences of marginalized users into an applied contribution to responsible AI research and design. The project proposes an anonymised dataset, a structured framework for inclusive chatbot development, a proof-of-concept prototype, and an open-access toolkit for developers and NGOs. The project asks how AI systems can be designed to better respond to users whose experiences of belief, identity, sexuality, and belonging may expose them to social exclusion or other forms of risk. It seeks to contribute to the development of more inclusive, culturally sensitive, privacy-conscious, and human-rights-aligned AI systems. The research brings together religious studies, digital ethnography, AI ethics, and the study of recognition and belonging, demonstrating how humanities and social-science research can contribute to current debates on responsible and inclusive artificial intelligence. The recognition by IRCAI under the auspices of UNESCO highlights the international relevance and interdisciplinary potential of this research and acknowledges the contribution of the project to the development of AI approaches that take marginalized lived experiences seriously. The Forum Internationale Wissenschaft congratulates Dalia Obiedat on this outstanding international recognition.

From September 7 to 12, 2026, LAGIP (Game Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play), part of the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, will once again host a week full of games at the University of Bonn: the Uni Bonn GAME WEEK. This is a multifaceted event that took place for the first time in September 2025. It brings together everyone at the University of Bonn and in the surrounding community who is interested in gaming, playful formats, and the vision of a playful university.  Here you’ll find the website for this year’s GAME WEEK. There you’ll find our event calendar and detailed descriptions of the individual Game Talks, Talk(ad)ventures, hands-on workshops, mind-game discussions, etc. Once again, there are some extremely exciting events on the schedule! This year, we’re once again kicking off GAME WEEK with the big CAMPO Cafeteria Game Night on September 7, a mid-GAME WEEK game night on September 9, and the finale at our LARP closing party on Friday, September 11, 2026. Just like last year, we’ll once again be streaming Breakfast Lectures from Wednesday through Friday on our LAGIP Twitch channel, always at 8:30 a.m., covering various topics in game studies. In addition to the numerous discussions and presentations, you’ll also have the option to participate in the “Escape 2051” escape room or try out our university role-playing game, 7’Rizons. On Saturday, September 12, just like last year, you’ll have the opportunity to visit the Bonn-based board game publisher Nice Game Publishing. Links to register are available on the website.   We look forward to seeing you there and to your participation!  Your LAGIP Team

Your Seminar as a Podcast!  The IMPULSE – House for Intellectual Innovation and Creativity, in collaboration with the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft, is once again offering lecturers the opportunity to conduct and record individual seminar sessions as podcasts during the Winter Semester 2026/27. Lecturers will receive expert guidance from a member of the podcast team in planning and executing these sessions. For those interested, there will first be a preliminary meeting via Zoom on Thursday, September 10, and Monday, September 21.  On Tuesday, October 13, and Monday, October 19, a studio tour will take place at IMPULSE. The dates for the podcast seminar will be set by arrangement. Further information can be found in the attached flyer  (PDF, German). We would appreciate it if you could forward this offer to the faculty at your institute!

Project Science Gaming: Board Game Events as a Gateway to STEM Topics (German title: Brettspielevents als Zugang zu MINT-Themen): Commercially available board games as a popular gateway to science.  Board games reach millions and have long been addressing scientific topics. Our project explores this potential and puts it to use: as a conversation starter, as a space for connection, and as a format for science communication. We are researching how game mechanics make complex topics accessible. A major opportunity arises from the fact that modern, commercially available board games are increasingly addressing science-related topics, such as climate change and climate protection, biodiversity, space exploration, history, and numerous other subjects. Even if some of these games contain only a few concrete elements of science communication, they can still serve as a conversation starter simply by the nature of the topics they address. This project investigates how modern board games can be used for science communication. The project Science Gaming: Board Game Events as a Gateway to STEM Topics is funded by the Klaus Tschira Foundation. An article about the project has now been published on their website, which here. The project website on the University of Bonn website is here.