27 October 2026 in Munich
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
On 27 October 2026, Dr. Charlotte Wendland from the ForFamily subproject “Family Law” organises and moderates the panel discussion “Fear, Facts and Fiction: Communicating Knowledge in Times of Rapid Change” at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich. It explores how science can be communicated clearly and credibly, and how trust in science, politics and evidence-based approaches is changing.
21 October 2026 in Munich
German Youth Institute / Virtual
With the virtual Lunchbag Sessions “Familie am Mittag” (Family at Noon), the Department of Family and Family Policy at the DJI wants to enrich the societal discourse about family. At the center is the exchange between science and professional practice: scientific findings are prepared in an understandable way, linked with experiences from practice, and discussed with regard to their interdisciplinary connections and political implications.
08 October 2026 on television
3sat
On 8 October 2026, Prof. Dr. Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky, Co-Spokesperson of the Bavarian Research Network ForFamily and Head of the subproject “Co-Parenting” at LMU Munich, discusses with other guests in the NANO Talk on 3sat the diversity of today’s family forms and how social and legal frameworks can respond to them.
2 October 2026 in Mainz
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
At the 43rd Congress of the German Sociological Association at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Prof. Dr. Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky and Marlene Resch will present contributions on gender categories, family research, co-parenting, and the changing roles of fathers.
17 September 2026 in Stirling
University of Stirling
In the panel Visual Arts & Material Culture, Prof. Dr. Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati and Anna Hepting will present results from the ForFamily research project “Family in Film” at the 22nd Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture at the University of Stirling, including processes of “Doing” and “Undoing Family” in the films “Morgen ist auch noch ein Tag” and “Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums”.
25–28 August 2026 in Warsaw
17th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA)
rom 25 to 28 August 2026, Marlene Resch from subproject 9 “Co-Parenting” will present her talk “Parenthood Beyond Romantic Love: Emotional Norms and Ambivalence in Co-Parenting Constellations” at the 17th Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA) in Warsaw, in the Joint Session of Research Networks 11 & 13 on “Unspoken Emotions of (Non)Parenthood”, showing how emotional expectations of parenthood change when parenthood is not based on romantic love and the classic nuclear family.
20 July 2026 on Zoom
Online Meeting
On 20 July 2026, Dr. Martina Heitkötter and Janine Thiel from the German Youth Institute and the ForFamily research consortium will give the closing lecture of the digital lecture series “Care between Aspiration and Reality”, organised by the D-A-CH scientists’ initiative care-macht-mehr.com.
The lecture addresses the concept of “Doing Family” and the significance of housing, as well as interim empirical results from the FaGeNa project. The focus is on collectivised care work and the conditions under which care networks emerge.
14 July 2026 – 17 July 2026 in Lisbon
University Institute of Lisbon
At the Seventeenth International Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) in Lisbon, Leah Braekau presents interim results from subproject 10 on mentoring projects and informal neighbourly help for families.
4 July 2026 – 10 July 2026 in Gwangju, Korea
XXI ISA World Congress of Sociology
At the XXI World Congress of Sociology in Gwangju, a dedicated session will be devoted to these developments. The session is part of Research Network 06 – Family Research and is organised together with Dr. Claudia Zerle-Elsäßer and Selina Schelian.
Anyone researching continuities, ambivalences or inequalities of family ideals is warmly invited to submit a contribution.
Deadline: 14 October 2026
3 July 2026 – 4 July 2026 in Kassel
University of Kassel
On 3 and 4 July 2026, the 9th conference of the Network for Educational Family Research (Netzwerk Erziehungswissenschaftliche Familienforschung) will take place at the University of Kassel under the title “Family in the Plural: Diversity and Heterogeneity as a Challenge in Educational Family Research”.
For the ForFamily research consortium, Selina Schelian, Dr. Dana Harring and Marlene Resch from three subprojects will be on site. They bring different perspectives on family diversity to the academic exchange: Selina Schelian and Marlene Resch will present contributions on family concepts and models (Familien(leit)bilder) and parenthood, as well as co-parenting, while Dr. Dana Harring will accompany the conference with a conference report.
21 May 2026 – 22 May 2026 in Munich
German Youth Institute
On 21 and 22 May 2026, the specialist conference “Parental Stress: Relevance, Causes and Options for Action” will take place at the German Youth Institute in Munich. The event is organised by the Technical University of Munich, the German Youth Institute and the German Society for Social Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
We would particularly like to draw attention to the lecture by Dr. Claudia Zerle-Elsäßer in the forum “Changing Expectations of and Challenges to Parenthood”. As a representative of the ForFamily research consortium, she contributes the consortium’s perspective to the discussion on current changes and challenges of parenthood.
7 May 2026 in Munich
Kulturzentrum LUISE München
ForFamily has successfully completed its mid-project evaluation and is now moving into the second half of the project. The consortium would now like to present its interim results and welcomes feedback from practitioners to guide its future research.
How do practitioners view the initial analyses and findings? What questions remain open for research? What ideas and concerns could still be addressed?
In addition, you can look forward to four workshops that will focus on different aspects of family life.
We invite you to attend the expert forum on May 7, 2026, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the LUISE Cultural Center in Munich.
If your organization serves families and you’re interested in discussing current research, you’re cordially invited!
7 May 2026 – 08 May 2026 in Weimar
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
The conference explores how social change is transforming housing and how social, environmental, and spatial developments influence one another.
Through interdisciplinary discussions, key challenges and potential solutions related to housing, urban development, and transformation will be analyzed at various levels.
6 May 2026 in Berlin
Humboldt Forum
As part of the lecture series “Beziehungsweise Familie/Family Matters”, Anna Hepting and Luise Merkert will give a talk at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin on the role of religious references in cinematic depictions of family and on how family is negotiated, portrayed and interpreted in cinema, looking back on the film series “Irrgärten und Auswege. Familienbilder im Kino.” of the Chair of Religious Studies and the History of Religion.
24 April 2026 – 25 April 2026 in Weimar
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
On 24 April 2026, the ForFamily research network will be represented at the Annual Conference of the German Society for Social Work (DGSA) in Weimar. Prof. Dr. Bettina Leibetseder and Sonja Mende from Landshut University of Applied Sciences will present their contribution “Family Images and Guiding Models of Family in Social Work”.
The central question is how ideas of family shape social work with children, young people and families. The international scoping review examines professional roles and values in the tension between increasing family diversity and conservative concepts of family.
24 April 2026 in Mönchengladbach
Hochschule Niederrhein
At the DGSA Annual Conference 2026 in Mönchengladbach, subproject 10 “Civic Engagement” presented results on the societal significance of civic engagement for democracy.
25 March 2026 in Munich
30th Congress of the German Educational Research Association (DGfE)
On 25 March 2026, several subprojects will represent the ForFamily research network at the 30th Congress of the German Educational Research Association in Munich in a research forum moderated by Prof. Dr. Rita Braches-Chyrek: Sonja Mende will examine family images in services with a come-in structure, Doris Lüken-Klaßen, Anastasia Baumtrog and Sarah Ali Mohamed will address the transformative power of working with refugee families, and Dr. Dana Harring and Carolin Pastor von Camperfelden will investigate children’s images of family.
26 February 2026 – 27 February 2026 in Berlin
Freie Universität Berlin
The lecture “Digitality and the Family” will be presented on February 26 and 27, 2026, at the networking conference on subjectivation research, “Digitality and the Subject,” at Freie Universität Berlin. The conference focuses on the effects of digital transformation processes on forms of subjectivation; the lecture examines, in particular, how digitality is changing family structures and relationships.
26 February 2026 – 27 February 2026 in Munich
German Youth Institute e.V. Munich
The event is dedicated to the topic “FACES – Families And Challenges in Evolving Societies in the D-A-CH Region and beyond” and brings together international experts to discuss current challenges for families. The focus is on societal changes such as demographic change, new working environments, digitalisation, as well as debates on equality and family policy.
12 February 2026 – 22 February 2026 in Berlin
76th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale)
At the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, Prof. Dr. Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati from the ForFamily project “Family in Film” is a member of the Ecumenical Jury of the Berlinale, which awards three prizes in the Competition, Panorama and Forum sections, honouring films that look at intergenerational relationships, relationships beyond classic family structures, social roles within communities, and images of gender and family.
22 July 2025 – 03 February 2026 in Munich
Leopold & ABC Kinos, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
ForFamily presented its research project and engaged in a discussion with the professional public: The numerous questions and suggestions from professional and everyday life have provided the consortium with valuable insights for further research. We sincerely thank you for your active participation and inspiring contributions! INFO
08 January 2026 – 10 January 2026 in Munich
Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation Munich
The conference is part of the Bavarian research association ForFamily. The Chair of Religious Studies and History of Religion at LMU Munich is participating in it with the sub-project “The Family in Film – Media as a Place of Negotiating Familial Narratives, Values and Changes.”
30 September 2025 – 02 October 2025 in Augsburg
University of Augsburg
Under the title “Speculative Geographies in the New Climate Regime,” the University of Augsburg is hosting the NKG annual conference. The research association ForFamily is represented with the sub-project “Housing and Family” and contributes with presentations to the programme.
15 January 2025 – 17 December 2025
Virtual
The German Youth Institute (DJI) invites, within the framework of the virtual lunchbag sessions “Family at Noon,” to an interactive exchange about current societal topics. Members of the Bavarian research association ForFamily also contribute their expertise.
30 September 2025
Virtual
Prof. Dr. Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky speaks in the monthly ifb colloquium about “conceptual and empirical insights into co-parenting as a (not so) new form of family.”
02 July 2024 in Munich
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
With participation of the ForFamily sub-projects
24 June 2024 in Munich
Technical University of Munich
ForFamily sub-project “Family Housing in Community and Neighborhood” in cooperation with the Cluster Sustainable Real Estate at TUM
