Aktuelles
Charrlotte Adelina: New Publication
In her paper "A sociology of vegetal life: rethinking ‘harmony’ and ‘nativism’ in Miyawaki forests“ Charrlotte Adelina "traces the genealogy of the “Miyawaki forest” or “Tiny Forest” concept and shows how right-wing ideologies were fueled by organicism in plant thinking. Her work argues that "such provincial epistemologies continue to pose reverberations onto the ‘nativist’ ethos of greening programs and urban forests today“. The article has been published in Cultural Geographies and is accessible open access via: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14744740251324906
01.04.2025
Madlen Hornung successful PhD defense
Huge congratulations to Madlen Hornung for passing her PhD viva on the topic of "„More than Meat: Lively Relations and the Politics of Valuing Sheep and Goats in Ethiopia” in late 2023!
15.01.2024
Claudia Serwah Prempeh successful PhD defense
We congratulate Claudia Serwah Prempeh for successfully defending her PhD "POWERING GHANA? “DUMSOR”, A STUDY OF ELECTRICITY AND ITS ABSENCE" at the Bayreuth Graduate School for African Studies. The PhD was written under the supervision of Uli Beisel
28.03.2023
New DFG-funded COVID-19 research project: Uneven geographies of vaccine manufacturing in the Global South
In February 2022 a new project has started in the research group. Uli Beisel and Madlen Hornung, in collaboration with colleagues at Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil, University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, University of Ghana and the University of London in the United Kingdom, have received funding in the “COVID-19 Focus Funding: Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Global South: Health Systems and Society” program of the German Research Foundation Our 12-month project interrogates how fair access can be built into the design of vaccines and critically, their manufacturing processes. The pace of COVID-19 vaccine development has been nothing short of remarkable. In under a year from when genomic sequence of the novel coronavirus was made publicly available, millions of people around the world had received one of many viable candidates. Despite this tremendous achievement the global impact and public health value of these critical tools remains to be demonstrated. Vaccine equity, already a long-standing focus of global health concern, has, in the current crisis, become a lightning rod for geopolitical debate. In this context, it is critical to understand how technology transfer is being achieved in countries of the Global South that have limited vaccine production capacities so far. We aim to provide in-depth analysis of the tech-transfer and collaborative production processes in South Africa, Ghana and Brazil. Through the collaboration between social science scholars in the Americas, the African continent, United Kingdom and Germany, we hope to pilot a more substantive international research collaboration that accompanies the accelerated efforts to build up and strengthen vaccine-manufacturing efforts in the Global South. Studying vaccine R&D and manufacturing from a social science perspective will elaborate comparative insights for how social and global (in)justice is currently being enacted in these processes and could be in the future. Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), COVID-19 Focus Funding: Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Global South: Health Systems and Society Funding Period: 2021-2022 Project Team:Prof. Dr. Andrew Barry, Department of Human Geography, University College London, United Kingdom; Prof. Dr. Uli Beisel, Department of Human Geography, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; Dr. John Kuumuori Ganle, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Ghana; Germany; Dr. Nele Jensen, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Kings College London, United Kingdom; Dr. Ann H. Kelly, Department of Global Health & Social Medicine, Kings College London, United Kingdom; Dr. Gustavo Matta, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil; Prof. Dr. Richard Rottenburg, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Vinayak Bhardwaj, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Madlen Hornung, Department of Human Geography, Freie Universität Berlin; Ester Rede, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil
24.02.2022
New Berlin University Alliance Project: Re-Scaling Global Health - Human Health and Multispecies Cohabitation on an Urban Planet Uli Beisel and Charrlotte Adelina, in collaboration with partners from HU Berlin, TU Berlin, Charité as well as a networ
Uli Beisel and Charrlotte Adelina, in collaboration with partners from HU Berlin, TU Berlin, Charité as well as a network of transdisciplinary and international partners, have received funding from the Berlin University Alliance in their program “Exploration Projects of the Grand Challenge Initiative on Global Health”. Our 3-year exploratory grant will analyze urban human-animal-environment relationships and how they affect human health in urban spaces. The project investigates the multiple links between health, biodiversity, and environmental pollution. The history of urbanization in conjunction with globalization, particularly since the industrial revolution, has repeatedly given rise to widespread contagious diseases. While pandemics have existed throughout history, their rate of occurrence has been increasing dramatically since the 1960s. Increasing urbanization and its effects on land use change, global mobility patterns, and environmental pollution are key interdependent drivers of this process. The effects of such urbanization patterns on biodiversity loss make (animal) populations more susceptible to the spread of viruses. We see a clear connection between urbanization, biodiversity, and global health that our project seeks to investigate in detail. If we want to work towards improving both human and ecosystem health, we need to pay close attention to the complexities of urban habitats and processes of urban environmental change, untangling the main drivers of urbanization and the interplay between biodiversity and human health. Our project brings together a transdisciplinary team of urban scholars from the social sciences, the humanities, urban design and planning fields with ecologists and virologists to work towards conceptualizing and empirically examining the complex relationship between human health and the urban environment. Conceptually, the aim is to advance a theory and practice of multispecies urbanism that understands the environment not as a passive backdrop but as an active agent co-producing urban space and affecting human and more-than-human health. Working together with our transdisciplinary project partners, we take on the imagination challenge of reconceptualising urban health through a multispecies lens; and, we take on the implementation challenge of developing strategies and solutions for a practice of multispecies cohabitation with the ultimate goal of building healthier and more equitable urban futures. The project will be developed through four to five urban case studies that build on our existing expertise and networks (Berlin, São Paulo, Melbourne, and Nairobi in collaboration with long-term local collaborators funded through other projects) as well as establishing new collaborations (New Delhi, Singapore) thereby enabling comparative research themes to emerge along with the development of grounded theory. The project will be operationalized through explorative sub-projects developed with cross-cutting themes and in transdisciplinary teams as a starting point for a wider research agenda to be advanced over the three years. Funding: Berlin University Alliance Funding Period: 2022 – 2025 Project Team: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisel, Freie Universität Berlin; Prof. Dr. Dorothee Brantz, Technische Universität Berlin; Prof. Dr. Ignacio Farías, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Prof. Dr. Sandra Jasper, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; PD Dr. Sandra Junglen, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin; Prof. Dr. Jörg Niewöhner, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Prof. Dr. Jörg Stollmann, Technische Universität Berlin; Dr. Tanja Straka, Technische Universität Berlin; Charrlotte Adelina, Freie Universität Berlin
24.02.2022
Berufung von Prof. Ulrike Beisel an das Institut für Geographische Wissenschaften
Wir begrüßen Frau Prof. Dr. Ulrike Beisel am Fachbereich Geowissenschaften. Frau Beisel wurde zum 1. April 2021 auf die Professur für Anthropogeographie mit dem Schwerpunkt Geographische Entwicklungsforschung berufen. Frau Beisels Forschung beschäftigt sich mit der Verräumlichung globaler Ungleichheiten und Bedingungen von gesellschaftlichen Transformationsprozessen, insbesondere in den Themenbereichen NaturenKulturen, Planetary Health und Environmental Justice. Ihre Arbeit ist in dem interdisziplinären Feld der feministisch und postkolonial geprägten Science and Technology Studies, dem Ansatz der more-than-human Geographie und in Global Health verortet. Sie hat Psychologie und Soziologie an der Universität Bremen studiert (Diplom, 2005), einen Master of Arts „Environment, Culture and Society“ an Lancaster University (Großbritannien, 2006), sowie eine Promotion in Humangeographie an der Open University (Großbritannien, 2011). Danach war sie an der London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Lancaster University und zuletzt an der Universität Bayreuth tätig. Ulrike Beisel bringt drei Forschungsprojekte mit an die Freie Universität Berlin: (1) ein DFG-gefördertes Projekt zu „Vertrauen in Medizin nach der Ebola Epidemie: 'Street-level health bureaucrats', die Institutionalisierung von Gesundheitsversorgung und Epidemievorsorge in Sierra Leone, Uganda und Ghana”, (2) ein Pilotprojekt der Volkswagen Stiftung zu “Mobile Mosquitoes - understanding the entangled mobilities of Aedes mosquitoes and humans in India, Mexico, Tanzania and Germany” und (3) ein Projekt im Rahmen des Exzellenzcluster Afrika Multipel der Universität Bayreuth zu “Planned obsolescence, circular economies and ecologies of electronic devices in transdisciplinary perspective”. Sie ist Teil des Editorenkollektivs des Open Access Buchverlags Mattering Press ( https://www.matteringpress.org ) und Associate Editor der Fachzeitschrift Science as Culture ( https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/current ).
22.04.2021
Gastprofessur Geographische Entwicklungsforschung
Im WS 2020/21 vertritt Dr. Benjamin Etzold die Professur Geographische Entwicklungsforschung an der FU Berlin. Dr. Etzold hat an der Universität Bonn im Themenfeld der geographischen Entwicklungsforschung promoviert und war in den letzten Jahren als wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Friedens- und Konfliktforschungszentrum BICC ( Bonn International Centre for Conversion ) tätig. In seiner aktuellen Forschung zu Flucht verbindet er Ansätze der Sozialgeographie mit der Migrationsforschung und hat dabei insbesondere die räumlichen sowie entwicklungspolitischen Dimensionen des Themas im Blick. Ein Beispiel hierfür ist das von Dr. Etzold geleitete und von der EU im Rahmen des Horizont2020 Programmes geförderte Projekt „Transnationale Figurationen der Flucht“ ( TRAFIG ). In dem Projekt, das empirische Forschung und Analysen in neun Ländern in Ostafrika, dem Nahen Osten und Europa umfasst, stehen sogenannte langanhaltende Fluchtsituationen im Mittelpunkt. Das TRAFIG Team, über 60 Personen in 12 Partnerorganisationen, untersucht welche Rolle Mobilität und lokale, translokale und transnationale Netzwerke für Schutzsuchende, die sich in solchen verfestigten Krisenkonstellationen befinden, spielen. Auf dieser Grundlage erarbeiten sie Vorschläge für eine bessere Ausgestaltung der Flüchtlings- und Migrationspolitik sowie der humanitären Hilfe und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit.
21.10.2020
‚Hunza Matters. Ordering and bordering between ancient and new Silk Roads‘
Since the mid-19th century, boundary-making in the Pamirian Crossroads had involved the redefining of contested spheres of influence between Great Britain and Russia. Remote mountain microstates had enjoyed a comparatively high degree of autonomy from their immediate neighbours. The incorporation of the Hunza Valley into the British-Kashmirian realm followed a successful military intervention. The colonial project has significantly affected living conditions in the Hunza Valley. Hunza matters addresses the transformation from four perspectives. First, the changing physical infrastructure are analysed from a road perspective. Initially, pack animals and porterage were involved in crossing high passes. Daring geostrategic projects emerged, shedding light on early plans for connecting British India with China by motor road. Much later the Karakoram Highway was built. The latest stage of infrastructure development is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Second, environmental resource utilisation strategies have changed over time. Emphasis has shifted from a predominantly agriculture-based economy towards a market-oriented income generation including extractivism, remittances and services. Third, bordering and ordering is strongly linked to actors and factors. Fourth, new light is shed on prevalent myths that are associated with Alexander the Great and the Silk Roads, longevity and an ideal state. A developmentalism discourse has been transformed in Chinese occupation narrative. All four perspectives are displayed on the basis of archival evidence that has been collected from a wide range of sources, augmented by empirical material collected during four decades.
01.04.2020
Von der geographischen Entwicklungsforschung zu einer Geographie gesellschaftlicher Transformationen. Theoretische Überlegungen und ein empirisches Beispiel aus dem Alpenraum
Vortrag von Frau Prof. Dr. Kirsten Koop (Université Grenoble Alpes) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Instituts für geograph. Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 28.01.2020, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo - Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
21.01.2020
Skalenübergreifende Fernerkundung als Monitoringtool von Biomasse und Kohlenstoff im Anthropozän
Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Lukas Lehnert (LMU München, Department für Geographie) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 19.11.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
31.10.2019
Produktion und Steuerung von Migration in Städten
Vortrag von Frau Prof. Dr. Antonie Schmiz (FU Berlin) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Instituts für geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 29.10.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo - Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
23.10.2019
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Gilgit-Baltistan
Vortrag von Hafeez Ur Rahman (Ministerpäsident von Gilgit-Baltistan) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 09.07.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
03.07.2019
Shifting Foodscapes in High Asia
Vortrag von Dr. Andrei Dörre (Universiät Wien) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 02.07.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
19.06.2019
The moral economy of Assam's tea production: On the negotiation of justice between different interest groups for tea plantation labourers
Vortrag von Dr. Anna-Lena Wolf ( Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg ) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 25.06.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
18.06.2019
Micronations around the world – Königreiche zum Selbermachen
Vortrag von Dr. Sandra Petermann (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz ) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 18.06.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
06.06.2019
Ethnomusicological Research in the Pamirs
Vortrag von Prof. Richard Kent Wolf (Harvard University) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 04.06.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
28.05.2019
Transnationalism and migration networks between north-eastern Pakistan and Kuwait
Vortrag von Dr. Antía Mato Bouzas (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 14.05.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
08.05.2019
Kognitive Diagramme als Forschungsmethode am Beispiel von Buenos Aires als Gateway City des argentinischen Öl-und Gassektors
Vortrag von Dr. Sören Scholvin (FU Berlin, Anthropogeographie) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 23.04.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
15.04.2019
Untangling Wakhan Quadrangle
"Untangling Wakhan Quadrangle" von Aziz Ali Dad. In diesem Artikel rezitiert er Bücher von Prof. Dr. Kreutzmann und seiner Frau Sabine Felmy, erschienen in "The High Asia Herald" im März 2019. Den Artikel gibt es zum Herunterladen im folgenden pdf.
10.04.2019
Mountain tourism at the highest elevations: The case of Karakoram, Pakistan
Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Irena Mrak (College of Environmental Protection Velenje, Slovenia) im Rahmen des "Geograph. Kolloquiums des Institutes für Geograph.Wissenschaften" an der FU Berlin, am Dienstag, den 16.04.2019, 12 Uhr c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, Haus G, Hörsaal G 202.
09.04.2019
