OPEN CALL: Professorship in the Design of Sustainable Mobility Concepts at HBK Braunschweig

The Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) is seeking to fill a W2 professorship in the Design of Sustainable Mobility Concepts at the emerging institute of design disciplines with effect from October 1, 2027. The successful candidate will be appointed as either as a civil servant or as a permanent salaried employee.

The Braunschweig University of Art (HBK) is an internationally oriented art university with the right to award doctoral and post-doctoral degrees. With around 1000 students in the fields of fine arts, art education, performing arts, design and design studies, visual communication, art studies and media studies, the HBK Braunschweig is one of the large universities of the arts in Germany.
The university’s design departments are currently undergoing a comprehensive restructuring. In addition to the establishment of a new institute, the degree programmes are to be reorganised and numerous professorial posts to be filled. In terms of both content and structure, this process is primarily guided by the profound transformation of the concept of design brought about by the impending ecological and social transition.

The Professorship: Responsibilities and Profile
In teaching and research, the Professorship in the Design of Sustainable Mobility Concepts addresses the conception and design of novel, sustainable mobility concepts as well as their implementation in dynamic awareness of new technologies, changing ecological conditions, user preferences, and the needs of a polycentric everyday reality. The position is embedded in a multidisciplinary academic and artistic environment in one of the world’s most research-intensive regions in the field of mobility. Drawing on the visualisation and modelling practices of classical transportation design, the professorship aims to communicate and develop established and experimental sustainable (in particular, climate-sensitive) approaches to mobility in the context of non-normative, participatory design. The successful candidate is expected to convincingly represent their field and to actively build national and international networks in the fields of mobility and sustainability. Their research areas should therefore ideally lie in the participatory and intersectional development of these fields.

Requirements for Appointment
–completed university degree in design
–completed doctorate
–postdoctoral thesis (“Habilitation”) or equivalent achievements
–pedagogical and didactic aptitude demonstrated through subject-specific academic teaching; the ability and explicit willingness to continuously teach the fundamentals for all design degree programmes at HBK.

The appointment requirements are set out in Section 25 of the Lower Saxony Higher
Education Act (NHG).

We expect
–outstanding specialist expertise and broad knowledge of the areas named above,
–relevant publications, lectures, and other contributions to the disciplinary discourse,
–internationally visible research that builds on and expands the profound transformation of the design concept in tune with the upcoming institute restructuring around ecological and social transformation,
–relevant experience and pronounced interest in the design, funding, and execution of research projects,
–willingness to supervise doctoral projects,
–willingness to comprehensively and actively participate in academic self-administration,
–willingness and ability to actively help shape and further develop the restructuring of the design departments,
–fluent command of spoken and written German (C1 level at least) due to the expected teaching duties in German-language degree programmes and the organisational requirements involved in establishing new degree programmes.
Willingness to teach in English is also highly welcome.

Experience in the development of study programmes is desirable. The successful candidate should have a particular interest in collaborative processes and in further developing a team-oriented environment, specifically in cross-programme and collaborative teaching. The candidate should be part of a broad, interdisciplinary network, be familiar
with contemporary cultural trends and technological developments in their field and able to integrate socio-political discourses responsibly into their teaching.

Application deadline: August 10, 2026

For more information, including the necessary application documents please visit here.