Syllabus
Registration via LPIS
| Day | Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | 03/10/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D2.0.330 |
| Tuesday | 03/17/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D4.0.047 |
| Tuesday | 03/24/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D3.0.237 |
| Tuesday | 04/14/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D2.0.334 Teacher Training Lab |
| Tuesday | 04/21/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D3.0.237 |
| Tuesday | 04/28/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D3.0.237 |
| Tuesday | 05/05/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D4.0.047 |
| Tuesday | 06/16/26 | 12:30 PM - 03:30 PM | D2.0.330 |
This research seminar explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, organizational storytelling, and the increasingly influential role of memes as narrative devices. Students will investigate how organizations use storytelling to shape identity, communicate values, and engage internal and external audiences—and how AI technologies are transforming these processes, performing systematic literature reviews and content analysis. The seminar positions storytelling not merely as a communication tool, but as a strategic resource that constructs meaning within, around, and about organizations.
A central component of the course is examining how AI can be integrated into narrative practices. Students will critically assess the opportunities and risks associated with AI‑supported storytelling, including issues such as authenticity, creativity, bias, and ethical communication. In addition, the seminar focuses on memes as contemporary storytelling formats. Memes serve as condensed, culturally resonant narratives that can rapidly influence perceptions, support internal communication, and even function as tools of organizational humor or critique. Students will explore how memes can be leveraged—or misused—with regard to organizational contexts. One particular focus will be the study of how organizations in business, politics, and society writ large are engaging in the so-called meme wars in the polarized information society of the 21st century.
Throughout the seminar, participants will design and conduct their own empirical study related to AI, organizational storytelling, and meme‑based communication. They will apply qualitative, quantitative, or mixed‑methods approaches, develop a theoretical framework, and present their findings. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to (critically) analyze emerging narrative practices and contribute to scholarly conversations on organizational communication and storytelling in the age of AI.
The course will enable students to do the following things:
- engage with communication theories
- design, organize, and conduct a research project in the field of strategic communication research
- use research methods to gather and analyze data
- draw conclusions from the collected data
- self-organize as a team
- write an academic research report
Attendance is mandatory during all the meetings with the seminar group and the concluding presentation of the results. Between these fixed events, students can miss a maximum of 2 project sessions with the advisers during the semester. Since this is partly a self-organized seminar, students have to manage their internal meetings together as a group.
This is an applied research project that will progress in four phases:
- The first phase will begin with the project kick-off where students will be introduced to the topic and the task they are going to work on during the semester. In this initial phase, students are asked to develop a comprehensive understanding of the problem, do research on the matter, and organize themselves as a project team.
- The second stage consists of the development of a research concept which is going to be pitched to the teacher. Students need to apply their insights from stage one to present their thoughts on how to tackle the problem at hand. At the end of this stage, the group will have developed a sustainable concept and research design to work on the project.
- Stage three is the main stage, where students conduct the research project and arrive at results and conclusions based on their own research.
- In the final stage, the participants will work on their reporting, i.e. to develop a presentation of their results and a written report.
During all the stages, students will be supervised by the faculty adviser to guide them in the application of their research methods towards the task they are given. The whole seminar is largely self-organized, apart from fixed counseling sessions provided by the professor.
1) Ongoing participation (15%)
2) Initial pitch of a research project (25%)
3) Result presentation (30%)
4) Project report (30%)
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