Guidelines for Respectful Work Environment and Protection Against Violence at the Forum Transregionale Studien e.V.

Since its foundation, the Forum Transregionale Studien in Berlin has been committed to openness and internationality in the Humanities and Social Sciences and to collaboration between scholars with different regional and disciplinary perspectives. It offers space for exchange on a peer-to-peer base between scholars at different career stages and from different disciplinary and regional research cultures. It offers opportunities and support for developing and testing research ideas and projects. 

This orientation shall not only guide the work of the Forum, but also be reflected in its organization, the composition of its staff, and in the interaction with and between employees, the voluntary members of the executive and advisory bodies, fellows, and guests. 

The Forum is committed to creating and maintaining a trusting working atmosphere. A trusting working environment is characterized by mutual respect, recognition, and security. This intent excludes any form of violence – as well as its tolerance. This includes discrimination, the exploitation of power imbalances, bullying, stalking, as well as sexualized and other forms of harassment and violence. The Forum is committed to protecting all Forum employees and volunteers, its fellows and guests in its work contexts against the above-mentioned forms of violence to the best of its ability. It takes resolute action against violations of this principle and punishes misconduct. No form of violence will be tolerated, trivialized, tacitly condoned, or ignored. This applies to incidents that affect safety, well-being, and the working environment at the Forum, as well as in serious cases, outside the Forum. Violence is not always clearly limited in terms of space and time, and in serious cases, safety at the Forum is also endangered by behavior outside the Forum or in the digital space. In individual cases, incidents that occurred outside the Forum but intersect with the Forum (via persons and contexts) also fall under this guideline if they negatively affect the working environment at and/or the reputation of the Forum.

Contact Ombudsperson:ombudsperson(at)trafo-berlin.de

Read/download the complete guidelines for a respectful work environment here