On March 8, our long-time colleague, former Dean and Vice President Prof. Dr. Ellen Bareis passed away in Frankfurt am Main at the age of 56. Ellen Bareis had held the professorship "Social Exclusion and Participation" at the Department of Social and Health Care since 2011. She had been associated with the Department for some time, having been appointed as a deputy professor in the 2009/2010 winter semester.
Ellen Bareis comes from Swabia, but for many years she lived in Frankfurt am Main, where she began studying sociology in 1992 and graduated in 1999. Her studies were followed by a dissertation, which was published in 2007 with the title "Verkaufsschlager. Urbane Shoppingmalls - Orte des Alltags zwischen Nutzen und Kontrolle" was published in 2007. This work already hints at one of the topics she has continuously pursued: For her, everyday life as a perspective was the central focus. In the research colloquium she founded together with Helga Cremer-Schäfer (Frankfurt) and later organized with Joachim Weber (Mannheim), which she ran on a voluntary basis, this is reflected in the title: "Alltag. Democracy. Social Work. Contradictions in the production of the social from below". This project also shows how much she was interested in promoting young talent and how open she was to student concerns.
In addition to her doctorate, she had a rich research and professional practice: a position at the renowned "Institute for Social Research" in Frankfurt, research projects with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Women and Family in Hesse, with medico international on the situation in French banlieues (the connection with France had always remained important to her), with the Institute for Urban and Regional Development at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and other positions as a research assistant. She became involved in education early on, as a lecturer at TU Darmstadt and Goethe University in Frankfurt. She joined our Department in 2009.
Ellen Bareis immediately made a constructive and committed contribution to the Department of Social and Health Care; together with Hans Ebli, she developed the consecutive Master's degree course in Social Work, which started in the summer semester of 2012. She became Vice Dean in 2013, developed the Department's research concept with Matthias Schulz and was elected Dean in 2015 (succeeding Hans Ebli). In 2019, she was elected Vice President (successor to Hans Ulrich Dallmann) for the areas of Studies & Education, Quality Management and the newly created Arts & Culture department. In this central management role, she was particularly concerned with the further interdisciplinary integration of the Departments, the further development of the health degree programs and the expansion of special forms of higher education didactics, such as "research-based learning". The founding of a working group to beautify the campus also goes back to her initiative.
Ellen Bareis was a researcher, curious, interested in the seemingly mundane as well as in structures and processes. In 2011, she and Thomas Wagner organized a series of events entitled "Politics with Poverty", which resulted in a publication ("Politics with Poverty. European social policy and welfare production 'from below'", 2015). In 2014, she took over the project management of the cooperation project "E to the power of B" (together with Doris Arnold). Other activities include, to name but a few, the project "Interculturality and Diversity in Education at the Department of Social and Health Care" in 2014 (together with Antje Reinhard, as part of the university's Diversity Project Fund), and accompanying scientific research on the accommodation of refugees in 2016 (together with Christine Resch), 2020 the project "LU*ludens - ein performatives Denkspiel der Stadt (BASF Tor 4)" (together with Antje Reinhard) or 2021 "Neustrukturierung der Mobilen Beratung gegen Rechtsextremismus RLP - Wissenschaftliche Begleitforschung und Organisationsentwicklung ("Stadt, Raum, Quartier - Forschungsstelle Soziale Arbeit"; together with Maria Diedrich). It is hardly surprising that her activity was offensive, nor that it spurred others on. According to her self-image, she was a critical social scientist and activist - in her own estimation, she had far too little time for the latter. She had many ideas for further academic and political projects - unfortunately, they will now remain ideas.
"For us as a Department and as colleagues, it is incredibly sad that Ellen Bareis has passed away. It was apparent due to a life-threatening illness - but it is precisely in her absence that we realize what a great loss this is for us," says Dean Hans-Ulrich Dallmann.
"The death of Prof. Ellen Bareis is also a great loss for the university as a whole," said University President Prof. Dr. Gunther Piller on behalf of the entire university management. "She was full of ideas and confidence right to the end and will be greatly missed as a driving force in education and research, but of course also as a valued colleague and person."
