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Morgane Nouvian (Biology / Research Fellow) and Nihan Toprakkiran (Politics and Public Administration / Postdoctoral Fellow) organised this Jour fixe.

Morgane´s talk was entitled "Individual brains, collective task: social regulation of stinging behaviour in honeybees".

Abstract:

Honeybees defend their nest against large predators thanks to a collective effort to harass and sting the intruder. The stinger apparatus has evolved to detach upon stinging elastic skin (such as ours) to maximize venom delivery, but the drawback is that the mutilated bee will then die within a few hours. Thus, the honeybee colony under threat has to achieve a delicate balance: enough bees need to respond that the intruder is successfully deterred, but without unnecessarily depleting the colony of its workforce. What are the mechanisms regulating the decision of each individual to engage or not into this collective response, so that this balance is reached? I propose that honeybees integrate information about the behaviour of their nestmates (social feedback) to fine tune their own response. The aim of this project is to study both the behavioural and the neurobiological bases of this regulatory mechanism. Thanks to the behavioural experiments, I will characterize the postulated social feedback and identify the sensory channels involved. In order to study the neurobiological mechanism underlying this regulation, the role of known and putative neuromodulators of honeybee aggression will be investigated. Characterization of the neurons involved will provide a starting point to unravel the neuronal circuitry mediating the stinging response of honeybees.

Nihan reported on "Immigrant Support for Home-Country Populism: A Comparative Look at the Turkish, Polish and Italian Communities in Germany".

Abstract:

My research addresses two contemporary political developments: the spread of external voting, that is the possibility of voting in national elections from abroad, and the rise of populism. Not only have these two phenomena drawn the attention of the public recently, but also some immigrant groups are particularly inclined to vote for populist parties in their countries of origin. This raises the following question: How can populist parties, with their anti-European and anti-immigration attitudes and opposition to liberal democratic principles, find support among immigrants who reside in a Western European democracy? In this talk, I will describe current trends among the Turkish, Polish and Italian population in Germany based on some empirical figures and discuss which parties I focus on as ‘populist’ parties. I will then outline how I approach the issue of explaining external political preferences in my current project.