The American Council on Germany and Campus OWL cordially invite you to a Breakfast Briefing on “Building Future-Ready Alliances: Academic Innovation and Transatlantic Cooperation” with Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple, Rector of Bielefeld University and Vice Chair of the Campus OWL Board and Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Schramm-Wölk, President of Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Hainan Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Chair of Campus OWL Board and other members of the Campus OWL delegation.
Prof. Dr. Angelika Epple has been Rector of Bielefeld University since October 2023, having previously served two years as Vice Rector for Research and International Affairs and six years as Vice Rector for International Affairs and Diversity, also at Bielefeld University. As a Professor of 19th and 20th Century History in the Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology, her research focuses on the theory of history, globalization since the early modern period, and global microhistory. She has held numerous leadership roles in addition to her current position of Vice Chair of the OWL Board, including as dean of her faculty, Chair of the Research Institute for Social Cohesion since 2021, and as the spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Center “Practices of Comparison” (2017–2021). She is also a principal investigator in the Research Training Group “World Politics” and the Center for Advanced Latin-American Studies (CALAS) and has previously held leadership positions in several interdisciplinary research initiatives at Bielefeld University.
After studying in Spain and Germany, Prof. Dr. Epple received her doctorate in 2001 at Bielefeld University and later completed her habilitation at the University of Hamburg in 2008. Her academic career has included appointments at the Universities of Hamburg, Freiburg, and Bielefeld, Guadalajara (Mexico), and Bologna (Italy), as well as research fellowships at the German Historical Institutes in London and Washington, D.C.
Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Schramm-Wölk has served as the President of Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (HSBI) since September 2015, the Chair of Campus OWL (the association of the five state universities in Ostwestfalen-Lippe) since 2020, and Vice President for Transfer and Sustainability of the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK) since 2025. She started her career in higher education as a Professor of Computer Science and Multimedia at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences and later became the Founding Dean (2009-2014) and later Dean (2014-2015) of the Faculty of Communication and Environment at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. In addition to her university leadership roles, Prof. Dr. Schramm-Wölk serves on numerous academic and research boards and is actively engaged in shaping higher education and research policy in Germany.
Prof. Dr. Schramm-Wölk studied Biology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Tübingen before earning a degree in Medical Informatics from the Technical University of Applied Sciences Berlin in 1999. She earned her doctorate in 2004 from the Faculty of Medicine at Charité University Medicine Berlin. Prior to her academic leadership career, she also gained extensive industry experience as an IT developer and project manager.
Please email events@acgusa.org for more information.