About OpenEvo

We are scientists, teachers, and students working together to reimagine and cultivate a new direction for evolution and sustainability education. 
 
We believe interdisciplinary perspectives in evolutionary anthropology can empower all humans with a deeper understanding of themselves and their fellow humans as a foundation for creating a more peaceful and sustainable world. Join us!

Our Team

Contact our project co-founders below with questions or ideas related to OpenEvo!

Julia Findeisen

Student research assistant, IT support

Master student in Digital Humanities, Leipzig University

Former Staff

Anna Gariuolo, Bachelor of education sciences

Student research assistant, ProSocial Schools Project

Master student in Early Childhood Research

My main interest lies in the intersection of education and community development. In particular, I am passionate about understanding how to help educators and teachers in translating and applying research knowledge in a manner that is meaningful and practical to their communities and environments.

Luise Rau

Student research assistant, ProSocial Schools Project

Teacher Training student (German, English, Politics); Bachelor student in Political Science

After some teaching experiences and the intensive examination of different educational systems, I have become more and more aware of the numerous problems of the German school system. Accordingly, I am particularly interested in developing concepts with the help of community science, with which students can initiate changes and developments in the sense of a bottom-up process and thus not only improve their own school experience, but also set important impulses for educational policy.

Anton Gerike

Student research assistant, ProSocial Schools Project

Teacher Training student (Ethics, Math)

Öznur Özkaya, B.A.

Student research assistant, ProSocial Schools Project

Master student in Early Childhood Research

Since my undergraduate degree is in psychology, I am particularly interested in school well-being, the stress levels of students and teachers, and how the relationships amongst them and school environment play a role on their well-being. I would love to help students raise awareness about their mental health and develop and implement ideas on these issues in their communities.

Johannes Freymann, M.Sc.

Graduate Research Assistant, ProSocial Schools project

Clinical Psychologist & Psychotherapist in Training

EFPSA Trainer for Experiential Learning

With a background in communication psychology from my undergraduate studies and enriched by numerous global expeditions, I have developed a deep interest in the intercultural dimensions of human interactions and the psychological underpinnings of cooperation. My journey has also instilled a passion for exploring the mindful, spiritual, dialectical, and systemic aspects of psychotherapy. I am committed to integrating these principles, particularly through models such as DNA-V, into school curricula, believing that this provides a solid foundation for the promotion of mental health and the development of positive social behavior. As a psychotherapist and trainer, I draw inspiration from these principles in my work.

Christopher Droppa, M.A. (Hons) Philosophy and Linguistics, University of Edinburgh

Graduate Student at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Student Research Assistant, ProSocial Schools Project

At OpenEvo, I bring to bear extensive research from the philosophy and science of complex systems on the development of school and teacher education curricula. Motivated by the conviction that higher-order concepts and conceptual frameworks from complex systems research can be fruitfully introduced into educational systems prior to university, I am developing flexible educational resources for teaching the concept of decentralized agency that can be applied at multiple levels.

Our Partners and Supporters

In addition to our base within the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, projects on OpenEvo have been generously supported by the following organizations, institutions, and foundations:

& the Evolving Schools Network

OpenEvo is an educational innovation project from the Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Evolve the future of education with us!

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