news
Aseela Haque: New Publication
In her paper titled “Inhabiting flyover geographies: Flows, interstices, and walking bodies in Karachi” published in Urban Planning, Aseela Haque writes about Karachi’s flyover spaces based on a careful ethnography of urban uneven flows, liminal inhabitations in road interstices, and the experiences of walking bodies.
Mar 13, 2024
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!
Feb 20, 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.
Mar 28, 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
Feb 24, 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 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
Feb 24, 2022
‚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.
Apr 01, 2020
Von der geographischen Entwicklungsforschung zu einer Geographie gesellschaftlicher Transformationen. Theoretische Überlegungen und ein empirisches Beispiel aus dem Alpenraum
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Kirsten Koop (Université Grenoble Alpes) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, January 28, 2020, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Jan 21, 2020
Skalenübergreifende Fernerkundung als Monitoringtool von Biomasse und Kohlenstoff im Anthropozän
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Lukas Lehnert (LMU Munich) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, November 19 th , 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Oct 31, 2019
The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Gilgit-Baltistan
Lecture by Hafiz-ur Rahman (Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, July 9 th , 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Jul 03, 2019
Shifting Foodscapes in High Asia
Lecture by Dr Andrei Dörre (University of Vienna) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, July 2 th , 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Jun 19, 2019
The moral economy of Assam's tea production: On the negotiation of justice between different interest groups for tea plantation labourers
Lecture by Dr. Anna-Lena Wolf ( Martin-Luther-Universität, Halle-Wittenberg ) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, June 26, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Jun 18, 2019
Micronations around the world – Königreiche zum Selbermachen
Lecture by Dr. Sandra Petermann in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202
Jun 06, 2019
Ethnomusicological Research in the Pamirs
Lecture by Prof. Richard Kent Wolf (Harvard University) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, June 04, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202
May 28, 2019
Transnationalism and migration networks between north-eastern Pakistan and Kuwait
Lecture by Dr. Antía Mato Bouzas (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
May 08, 2019
Kognitive Diagramme als Forschungsmethode am Beispiel von Buenos Aires als Gateway City des argentinischen Öl-und Gassektors
Lecture by Dr. Sören Scholvin (FU Berlin, Anthropogeographie) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, April 23, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Apr 15, 2019
Untangling Wakhan Quadrangle
"Untangling Wakhan Quadrangle" by Aziz Ali Dad. In this article he reviewed books by Prof. Dr. Kreutzmann and his wife Sabine Felmy, published in "The High Asia Herald" , March 2019. For download please see pdf.
Apr 11, 2019
Mountain tourism at the highest elevations: The case of Karakoram, Pakistan
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Irena Mrak (College of Environmental Protection Velenje, Slovenia) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Apr 09, 2019
Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa
Lecture by Dr. Nicolas Friederici (Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford) in the context of the "Geographic Colloquium, Institute of Geographical Sciences" at the FU Berlin, on Tuesday, February 05, 2019, 12:00 c.t., Geo-Campus Lankwitz, building G, room G 202.
Jan 24, 2019
Human and political costs of CPEC on Gilgit Baltistan and beyond
Joint Hudson Institute & UNPO Conference discusses "Human and political costs of CPEC on Gilgit-Baltistan and beyond". On 5 September 2018, the Hudson Institut together with the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) convened a conference in Washington, DC. Hosted and moderated by Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Eric Brown, the event saw presentations by Prof. Dr. Hermann Kreutzmann, Professor of Human Geography at Freie Universität Berlin, and Husain Haqqani, former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States and currently Senior Fellow at Hudson Institut.
Sep 12, 2018