CV

since 1 April 2022 Full Professor (W3) in Political Science with a specialisation in climate politics at the Centre for Climate Resilience, University of Augsburg, Germany

  • teaching four classes in Political Science each term
  • research on adaptation to climate change (participation, digitalisation, climate justice)

1 October 2020 – 31 March 2022 Visiting Scholar (full-time) in International Relations at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at Hamburg University, Germany

  • teaching four classes on International Relations each term

1 August 2019 -30 September 2020: Senior Researcher at the Institute of Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) in Berlin, Germany

  • Research on the German energy transition, in particular acceptance factors of demand-side flexibility in electricity markets (Designetz, BMBF-funded)
  • Living lab in the city of Munich, research on how to create climate-resilient neighbourhoods by strengthening urban green infrastructures (Grüne Stadt der Zukunft München, BMBF-funded)
  • Organisation and facilitation of stakeholder dialogues and public consultations on Germany’s Climate Adaptation Strategy (Partizipationsportfolio DAS, UBA-funded)

2016-2019: Assistant Professor Environmental Governance, Open University of the Netherlands

  • Research on big data and artificial intelligence and their potential for environmental sustainability
  • Research on ‘Making the smart city safe for citizens’ (data security, privacy, liability, resilience, etc.)
  • Research on theories of lock-in in climate mitigation using the case of the German Energiewende
  • Research on the discursive construction of climate migration as adaptation strategy, including the Nansen Initiative
  • Teaching the introductory course to the B.Sc. Environmental Sciences (AMM2), a B.Sc. course on corporate responsibility (NB2502) and a M.Sc. course on the science-policy nexus (NM0102)

2015-2016:  Visiting Professor at the Department of Political Science and Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, Sweden

  • Project leader at Lund University for the Massive Open Online Course “Climate Change: A question of justice?” produced by Hagen University in collaboration with Lund

2013-2015: Interims Professor (W3) in International Politics, Institute of Political Science, Distance Teaching University in Hagen, Germany

  • Scientific Director of the M.Sc. in Environmental Sciences (funded via fees)
  • Leader of the reaccreditation, team leader of 18 people (incl. 3 postdocs, 3 PhD students)

2012/2013: Interims Professor (W2) in International Relations and European Politics, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

2012: Interims Professor (W1) for Global Governance, University of Hamburg, Germany

2009-2012: Senior researcher, DFG-funded Cluster of excellence “Integrated Climate Systems Analysis and Prediction” (CliSAP), University of Hamburg, Germany

  • Research on the social construction of climate change as a security issue

2002-2009: Assistant Professor in International Relations (C1), University of Hamburg, Germany

  • Research and teaching on international climate politics

2005: Visiting scholar at the Department of Political Science, University of Hawai’I at Manoa, Honolulu, USA (3 months)

2001-2002: Senior Research Fellow, Secretariat of the German Advisory Council for Global Environmental Change (WBGU), Berlin, Germany

  • Contribution to the 2003 report on the ‘Energy transition for sustainable development’

2000-2001: Postdoctoral researcher in a BMBF-SÖF-project on ‘Global Climate Change’, Otto-Suhr-Institute of Political Science, Free University of Berlin, Germany

EDUCATION

2016/17          Habilitation in Political Science (2016) and academic title ‘Privatdozentin’ (university lecturer) (2017), Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Germany, cumulative thesis title ‚Climate change as a security issue: Analysing the discourse and its policy implications‘

2000                Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom, published under the title ‘Evaluating stakeholder participation in the transition to sustainable development: Methodology, case studies, policy implications’

1995                Pre-Diploma (Vordiplom) in Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Berlin, Germany