Chair of Sustainability Governance

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Team

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Leitung

Prof. Dr. Michael Pregernig

Head of Chair of Sustainability Governance

michael.pregernig@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203 3708
Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
Room 4054

More on this person

Portraitfoto von Philipp Späth

apl. Prof. Dr. Philipp Späth

Assoc. Professor, Head of research group
Urban Sustainability Governance

spaeth@envgov.uni-freiburg.d e
+49 (0) 761 203-3725
Room 4048
Philipp combines his backgrounds in the Political Sciences, Human Geography and Science and Technology Studies (STS) to explore how unsustainability and injustices can be addressed more effectively. His current research, inter alia, focuses on governance approaches for sustainable and just cities (UrbanA project) and on ways in which contemporary energy transitions can be ‘re-coded’ in order to allow for greater social equity (ReSET project).

Administration

Contact

Office

sekretariat@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-3707
Tennenbacher Str. 4,
79106 Freiburg, Germany
Room 4055

Portraitfoto von Clarissa Stransky

Clarissa Stransky

Team coordinator, administrator

clarissa.stransky@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-3707
Room 4055

Seirra Römmermann

MEG study program coordinator

meg.coordinator@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-8495
Room 4055

Scientific Staff

Dr. Bleta Arifi

Research Associate

bleta.arifi@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-8499
Room 4047
Bleta is an environmental social scientist with a background in philology and environmental governance. Her research is on energy politics, focusing on the intersection of socio-environmental conflicts, resistance movements, and knowledge politics in the governance of energy infrastructure projects. Her research builds on Governmentality and Poststructural Policy Studies. In her current research project (ReSET), she studies how renewable energy transitions can be rendered more equitable.

Cristina Espinosa, PhD

Assistant Professor

cristina.espinosa@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-8499
Room 4030
Cristina has an interdisciplinary training in the Environmental Social Sciences. Her current research focuses on counter-knowledge practices challenging the social and political structures underpinned by science, technology and expertise that enhance the expansion of extractive industries and thus produce environmental injustices. At the intersection of Political Ecology, Feminist Science and Technology Studies and Decolonial Thinking, she deploys critical interpretivist perspectives. She is interested in environmental and sustainability governance discourses, the political representation of non-human nature, and transnational activism.

Doctoral Candidates

Portraitfoto von Manuel John

Manuel John

Doctoral Candidate

manuel.john@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-67941
Room 4046
Manuel is a sociologist by training, more recently specializing in Science & Technology Studies (STS). His methods of choice are qualitative interviews and interpretative and discourse analysis. In his work, he focuses on social aspects of nature conservation in forests, both in protected areas and in managed forests. He is particularly fascinated by the different ways in which nature is ‘known’, both by professionals in science, conservation and forestry, and by the general public.

Portraifoto von Joly Romane

Romane Joly

Doctoral Candidate

romane.joly@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
Room 3045
Romane Joly is a junior researcher in Urban Studies pursuing a bi-national PhD in Human Geography at the University of Freiburg (DE) and in Sociology at the University of Strasbourg (FR). Her thesis is co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Philippe Hamman and apl. Prof. Dr. Philipp Späth. Romane studies the socio-spatial production of agricultural hinterlands. She focuses on the case of the dairy sector in the cross-border space of the Upper Rhine in France and Germany. Using critical approaches such as urban political ecology and theories of space, she examines the social practices, norms, and technical devices surrounding the production and supply of dairy products.
Prior to starting her PhD, she graduated with a master’s degree in urban sociology at the University of Strasbourg and in political science at the Institute of Political Sciences of Toulouse (FR). She worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Sustainability Governance, University of Freiburg, as part of the project UrbanA – Urban Arena for Sustainable and Just Cities.
Romane is currently a member of the board of RT9 – Urban and Territorial Sociology of the French Sociological Association. She teaches Urban and Rural Sociology at the Institute of Urbanism and Regional Planning, University of Strasbourg (bachelor’s and master’s degrees).

Portraitfoto von Moritz Lauser

Moritz Lauser

Doctoral Candidate

moritz.lauser@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-96853
Room 2020b
Moritz studied physics (B.Sc.) and (human) geography (M.Sc.) at the University of Freiburg. This unusual combination results from his strong interest in natural processes as such, as well as in the complex interactions between nature(s) and society(ies). In his master’s thesis, he used qualitative social science methods to investigate the concept of ‘NaturenKulturen’ (see Gesing et al. 2019) using the example of bees and people in the city (Freiburg). He is now focusing his doctoral research on processes of knowledge generation and translation. To this end, he will investigate integration practices and translation processes at various interfaces between policy, management and science in the context of the biodiversity of multifunctional forests using a Science and Technology Studies (STS) approach.

Ronja Mikoleit

Doctoral Candidate

ronja.mikoleit@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-96845
Room 3046
In her research, Ronja focuses on professional knowledge practices and how we socially generate, transmit and employ knowledge and expertise on the environment in different social worlds, such as forestry. With her background in Sociology, she likes to focus on the challenges and developments of qualitative methodologies, such as ethnography. Engaging with debates in the fields of practice theories and (feminist) science and technology studies, she developed a particular interest in the role of bodies, materialities and affects in social theory and (research) practice.

Carolina Moreno Hernández

Doctoral Candidate

carolina.moreno@transition.uni-freiburg.de
Room 4046
Carolina holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics with a focus on regional development from the Autonomous University of Hidalgo in Mexico and obtained her Master’s degree in Environmental Governance from the University of Freiburg, where she focused her thesis on market challenges for smallholders. Carolina is a PhD candidate currently studying urban sustainability transitions with a focus on Latin American cities. Her research interests center on understanding how sustainability transition processes are triggered and facilitated, as well as how to better align environmental and social outcomes. Employing qualitative research methods, Carolina has an affinity for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.

Désirée Schwindenhammer

Doctoral Candidate

desiree.schwindenhammer@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
Désirée has a background in Sociology, Social Psychology, and Environmental Governance, with a methodological focus on qualitative interviews and content analyses. In her doctoral project, she aims to investigate institutions and power dynamics in the context of coastal governance, focusing on marine protected areas in Tanzania. This ensues her previous research, which involved an institutional analysis of marine biodiversity data sharing practices in Kenya and Tanzania, with reference to the concept of knowledge commons. In her current project, she would like to increasingly engage with social and environmental justice concepts.

Portraitfoto von Zabrina Welter

Zabrina Welter

Doctoral Candidate

zabrina.welter@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
+49 (0) 761 203-96846
Room 3046
Zabrina’s research focuses on the interlinkages between natural resource governance, conflict and peace, with special attention on Latin America. Her background is in Political Science with a focus on conflict resolution and peacebuilding and environmental governance studies. Her research problematizes the espansion of illegal mining in afro-descendant rural territories in Colombia. By engaging with critical perspectives from political ecology, feminist theory, and legal geography, she explores the profound impact of mining extractivism on the daily lives and territories of Black communities. Her work delves into how these communities navigate and respond to the challenges posed by such extractive activities.

Simon Funcke

Doctoral Candidate

simonfuncke@web.de
Simon is an external PhD candidate at University of Freiburg and he currently works at Forschungszentrum Jülich (funding agency PtJ). His background in environmental sciences and management of renewable energies contribute to his work and research on, inter alia, renewable energies, digitalisation and decentralisation of the energy system, and social-ecological economy.

Melani Pelaez Jara

Doctoral Candidate

melani.pelaez@envgov.uni-freiburg.de
Melani is a scientific desk-officer for climate, energy and policy issues at the state parliamentary group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Rheinland-Pfalz and an external doctoral candidate at the Chair of Sustainability Governance.

Former Staff and Doctoral Candidates

Dr. Julia Gorricho
- Doctoral Candidate (2012-2018)
- Currently: Programme Director at Blue Action Fund, Berlin
Dr. Benjamin Hennchen
- Doctoral Candidate and Researcher in the Project KERNiG (2016-2020)
- Currently: Research associate at the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG), TU Berlin
Robert John
- Research Associate (2022-2024)
- currently: PhD student at the Chair of Economic Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of Freiburg
Dr. Nina Kulawik
- Research Associate (2023-2024) in the networking and coordination of sustainability-oriented research in the university’s priority area “Pathways to Sustainability”
- Currently: Co-Managing Director of the Sustainability Innovation Campus at the University of Freiburg
Dr. Conrad Kunze
- Research Associate (2013–2015)
Emmanuel Löffler
- Research associate in the Project KNOWING (2017-2019)
Dr. Paul Osei-Tutu
- Doctoral Candidate (2011–2015)
- Currently: Senior Lecturer at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST, Ghana)
Prof. Dr. Lena Partzsch
- Research Associate and Project Leader (2014–2019)
- Currently: Professor of Comparative Politics with a Focus on Environmental and Climate Policy at Freie Universität Berlin
Dr. Dörte Marie Peters
- Research Associate (2015–2019)
- Currently: Co-Managing Director of the Sustainability Innovation Campus at the University of Freiburg
Dr. Sabine Reinecke
- Doctoral Candidate and Research Associate (2011–2015)
- Currently: Research associate at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Frick, Switzerland
Dr. Chelsea Tschoerner-Budde
- Doctoral Candidate (2012–2015)
- Currently: Officer for mobility, logistics and inland navigation at the Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport, and Housing in Hessen