Department of German Language and Literature Janine Dengler
CONTACT
Department of German Language and Literature
University Heidelberg
Hauptstr. 207–209
D – 69117 Heidelberg
Room: Karlstr. 2, Room 005
E-Mail: janine.dengler@gs.uni-heidelberg.de
Telephone: 06221 543254
Consultation hours: By appointment by E-Mail (in person or online).
Research assistant and PhD student
in the BMFTR project “Moralization in science communication - causes, forms and effects” in cooperation with the Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe.
News
- In May, Maria Becker and I were admitted to the nationwide transfer programme Catalyst GER with a project on the corpus-linguistic validation of AI-generated health information. The programme supports researchers in the humanities and social sciences in achieving societal impact with their research and identifying new fields of application. As part of the programme (Vorsprung durch SHAPE), we were invited to present our project at the British Embassy in Berlin in September.
- From 23–25 September, the Language and Knowledge Conference (SuW) took place under the theme “Reading Between the Lines: Pragmatics of the Unspoken”, which I organized together with Ekkehard Felder and Maria Becker.
- The conference also included the graduate workshops “Pitch Perfect”, which I organized in collaboration with hei_INNOVATION, Heidelberg University’s knowledge transfer agency. In the workshop, participants learned how to create a compelling short pitch. It offered master’s students and doctoral researchers a supportive setting in which to present their research projects and discuss them in depth with a small group. Participants also had the opportunity to present the pitches they developed at the conference on Thursday – an experience they can add to their CVs.
Research Interests
- Discourse and corpus linguistics
- Pragmatics
- Moralising speech acts
- Annotation studies
- Scientific communication and specialized language research (especially in AI discourse)
Education
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Since 11/2023 | Doctorate in linguistics at the Department of German Language and Literature at Heidelberg University |
08/2021 - 10/2023 | Master of Education in German Studies and History at the University of Heidelberg |
10/2020 - 09/2022 | Bachelor of Arts in German Studies and History (with teaching qualification) at the University of Heidelberg |
Academic Career
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10/2026-03/2027 | Interim scientific assistant for Dr. Katharina Jacob at the chair of Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Felder |
Since 11/2023-04/2027 | Research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Felder (Linguistics) at the Department of German Language and Literature at the University of Heidelberg in the project “Moralizations in Science Communication – Causes, Forms and Effects”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) |
02.06-01.08/2025 | Research stay at the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS) at Lancaster University (UK) |
08/2021 - 10/2023 | Student/research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Felder in the research project “Culture Wars: Battles over Cultural Heritage” at the Department of German Language and Literature at the University of Heidelberg |
10/2020 - 09/2022 | Student assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Nikolas Jaspert at the Department of medieval History at the University of Heidelberg |
Science Management
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09/2026 | Speaker of the Graduate Platform of the Language and Knowledge Research Network (together with Dr. Katharina Jacob) |
09/2026 | Lead organization of the graduate workshop “Pitch Perfect” as part of the 2026 Language and Knowledge Conference, in collaboration with hei_INNOVATION |
09.2026 | Lead organization of the 2026 annual conference of the research network “Language and Knowledge” (SuW) on the topic “Reading between the lines: Pragmatics of the unspoken” at Heidelberg University (together with Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Felder and Dr. Maria Becker) |
10.2025 - 09.2026 | Representative for the academic staff at the Department of German Studies, Heidelberg University |
09.2025 | Co-organisation of the Marsilius Academy on the topic "AI and Human Values: Exploring technological, social, and normative perspectives" (together with Tobias Just, Dr. Maria Becker and Marcel Kückelhaus) |
09.2025 | Co-organisation of the annual Language and Knowledge Conference (SuW) 2025 on the topic of “Language and AI” at the University of Heidelberg (together with Prof. Dr Ekkehard Felder, Dr. Maria Becker, Marcel Kückelhaus and Sven Bloching) |
Science Communication & Transfer
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24.09.2026 | Moderation of the panel discussion at the 2026 Language and Knowledge Conference: “Implicit Communication in Polarized Times: Opportunity or Problem?” Panelists: Prof. Dr. Simon Meier-Vieracker, Prof. Dr. Annette Leßmöllmann, Prof. Dr. Eva Buddeberg |
Since 05/2026 | Part of the Catalyst GER programme: a nationwide initiative to strengthen the transfer of humanities and social sciences research (SHAPE Impact Collective); admitted through a competitive selection process with the project “Corpus-linguistic Validation of AI-Generated Health Information” (together with Maria Becker). |
10/2025-10/2026 | Mentoring for first-generation students (together with Ekkehard Felder) as part of the New Potentials Programme |
Since 11/2022 | Blogger on the platform hypothesis.org |
Further training, awards and certificates
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14.04-28.04.2026 | Course „Basic Statistics“ conducted by the Graduate Academy of Heidelberg (Design experiments, Data collection, statistical analysis, level of measurement etc.) |
16/06-20/06/2025 | Summer School in Corpus Linguistics for analysis of language, discourse and society at Lancaster University (building and analyzing corpora, corpus analysis in forensic linguistics, analysing online communication, statistics, data visualizations etc.) |
28/07-30/07/2025 | Language, Speech, and AI Forensics Summer School organised by the FACTOR-Team (Forensic linguistics, Cybersecurity and Technology Research) at Lancaster University |
02/06-01/08/2025 | Mobility grant from the Graduate Academy for a research stay at the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS) at Lancaster University (UK) |
27.02-28.02/2025 | GAL Research School with focus on Methods of linguistic analysis of AI and using AI, organized by Nina Kalwa and Patrizia Attar at KIT |
completed 30/09/2024 | Additional qualification in “Information and Media Literacy” from the Heidelberg School of Education, with a focus on Computer Science and Media Literacy |
Presentations
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25.09.2026 | Presentation at the 2026 Language and Knowledge Conference: „Implicit Arguments, Explicit Judgments? Moralization in the Discourse on AI” |
15.09.2026 | Presentation of the TRUST-Project in the British Embassy in Berlin („Vorsprung durch SHAPE“) |
19.11.2025 | Keynote about the topic „Why language matters in Science Communication“ at the „1st KreativEU Annual Student Conference“ organized from the University of Greifswald |
05.09.2025 | Paper presentation „Evaluation Different Methods for Building Specialized Corpora: A Case Study on the German Discourse on AI“ bei der 12th International Conference on Computer Mediated Communication and Social Media Corpora for the Humanities (CMC) in Bayreuth (together with Bruno Brocai) |
11.06.2025 | Guest contribution to the research group “How Not to Be Replaced by AI: Corpus Linguistics Reflections” at the Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS) at Lancaster University on the topic: “Can we use LLMs for Corpus Creation? Can they do it better than humans?” |
26.04.2025 | Presentation at the graduation ceremony of the German Studies Department in the old auditorium in Heidelberg on the topic “Talking about artificial intelligence - between redemption and downfall” |
02.-04.04.2025 | Panel on the project "Moralizations in science communication’ with presentation, poster session and plenary discussion at the KoKoKom conference in Karlsruhe together with Lisa Gaffney (sub-project Communication Science, KIT) and Dr. Elisabeth Does (sub-project Philosophy, KIT) |
03.12.2024 | Presentation at the WMK Colloquium (Science - Media - Communication) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on the topic “Moralizations in the discourse on artificial intelligence - a discourse-strategic procedure for enforcing validity claims in science communication” |
14.11.2024 | Presentation at the colloquium of the European Centre for Linguistics (EZS) on the topic "Moralizing speech acts in the public-media discourse on artificial intelligence’ |
26.-29.07.2024 | Presentation at Charles University in Prague as part of the Joint PhD Colloquium of the Cooperative Network Philotrans and the European Discourse Community (EuDG) within the 4EU+ Alliance on the topic “Moralization practices in science communication in the discourse on artificial intelligence” |
Posters
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15.09.2025 | Poster presentation at the 28th German Studies Conference at the Technical University of Braunschweig in the panel “Dynamics of digital expert-layman dialogues in comments on science blogs” on the topic: Moralizations in science communication: Challenges for the dialogue between science and the public |
02.-04.04.2025 | Postersession about „Moralizations in Science Communication from a linguistic perspective.“ Conference Epistemic Struggles in Polarized Discourses at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) |
Publications (titles translated)
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Lectures/Teaching
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WS 2026/27 | Seminar: Linguistic analysis between corpus and discourse (together with Prof. Dr. Ekkehard Felder und Prof. Dr. Vahram Atayan)
Fundamentals of scientific work for Linguistics |
SoSe 2026 | Fundamentals of scientific work for Linguistics |
WS 2025/26 | Fundamentals of scientific work for Linguistics |