Teaching

The Section delivers a suite of modules on of agrifood management and global value chains.

A central element of our teaching approach is the open orientation phase: During the first two weeks of each semester, we anticipate that some students will still be exploring the content and requirements of the various modules without making a commitment, while many others will be selecting modules with a specific purpose in mind. We support this phase by providing information about our course offerings to enable students to make well-informed and independent decisions regarding their module selection.

Starting with the third class session, attendance is considered mandatory, and students are

• enrolled in the corresponding Moodle course
• registered for the associated exams
• engage with the provided course materials
• and participate regularly in the classes.

In the summer semester we offer our modules and exciting projects:

Master ÖL - ÖkoAgr-4630 Designing sustainable food systems - research workshop with the city of Witzenhausen on the topic of community catering in schools and daycare centers

Bachelor ÖL - H73 Sustainable management - research workshop with the practice partner Essbare Stadt Mühlhausen

AGES - interdisciplinary project - Diagnosing Governance in Agricultural Value Chains: Power, Risk, and Stakeholder Engagement

IFBC - Study Project (F22) - The Impact of Sustainability Strategies of Major Chocolate Companies: Greenwash or Transformative Change

Strategic Management (E31)

Our two IFBC projects will continue in the winter semester 2025/26. Our English-language teaching modules teach the basics on the one hand and in-depth knowledge about and for sustainability in agricultural and food systems on the other.

Management and Management Accounting (E17M)

This module is a so-called bridging module for IFBC students to teach important economic and management basics. Students from other degree programs are welcome. For more specialized business modules, please refer to other modules, e.g. in Faculty 07.

Sustainable Food Systems and Management (E47)

This module brings together students from IFBC, AGES, SIA and others and introduces them to the global and local contexts in which sustainability challenges arise in agricultural and food systems and to possible scientific approaches as a contribution to problem-solving. Students learn about the options and restrictions for action of different actors, different scientific approaches and work in groups and individually on selected content in an in-depth and reflective manner.

Designing participation processes for science and practice

for Master's students of Ecological Agricultural Sciences and others

The course provides methodological and conceptual foundations for the design and moderation of participatory processes. The focus is on a design challenge with the respective practice partners of a semester.

IFBC Projects

Food cultures on campus (with Prof. Dr. Fabian Weber and Dryden Schoepel)

IFBC PATHWAY STORIES - PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR SHAPING SUSTAINABILITY (with Dr. Evans Kissi)

We offer two project-based teaching formats as part of the IFBC degree program.

In addition, an interdisciplinary project is offered specifically for students on the AGES degree program. The projects address practical issues and are partly linked to ongoing research activities.

We mainly supervise Master's theses that are closely linked to our ongoing research projects. You can find the calls for proposals in the department's Moodle course.

Depending on capacity, we also supervise students who wish to submit their own topic proposals - both in the Master's and Bachelor's area.

Please note:

• Ideally, topic proposals should be related to our research focus areas and the teaching content of the socio-economic-ecological modules in economics, social and food sciences.

We recommend that you contact us at an early stage to discuss your topic and supervision, briefly explaining your motivation and ideas and informing us of your rough study plan. More information