Iris Clemens

Prof. Dr. Iris Clemens is a full Professor at the Chair of General Educational Science within the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Bayreuth, where she has held a permanent position since 2014. She previously served as Acting Professor of Intercultural Education at Bundeswehr University Munich (2012-2013) and worked at Free University Berlin and German Institute for International Educational Research Frankfurt.

• Habilitation: General Educational Science as Cultural Science (2013)
• Doctorate: Education-Semantic-Culture (2005)
• Diploma: Media Discourse and Pedagogical Reflection in India (2000)

Her research establishes relational educational frameworks through network theory applications, particularly focusing on knowledge transformations in globalized societies, postcolonial educational analysis, and non-Western learning processes. She has conducted sustained fieldwork in India since 1998 and Benin, examining global educational concept circulation, identity formation through networks, and epistemological decolonization.

Her recent publications analyze networked livelihood creation in Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation influence on education, and spatial learning dynamics. She co-organizes Digital Workshop for Doctoral Candidates (DGNet) and serves as Deputy Chair of the German Society for Network Research. The 2025 articles in Springer and Palgrave Macmillan demonstrate her continued leadership in relational educational theory.