Projects of YAS

Soft Robots

This study aims to investigate the impact of science communication on the perception of sustainability, carried out in the form of a case study using Soft robotics.

Project team:
Falk Tauber, Philipp Höfele
& Julius Fenn (YAC)

Desert Imaginaries

This research examines the energy-water nexus in energy transition projects across two desert regions – one hot and one cold – to compare governance models, socio-ecological impacts, resistance movements and alternatives.

Project team:
Neelakshi Joshi, Noura Wahby

Climate Fiction Anthology

The project envisions a „Climate Fiction Anthology“ in which YAS and YAC members (alongside other collaborators) develop cli-fi texts/visuals rooted in their own disciplinary backgrounds.

Project team:
Tanja Granzow

Thermal Coloniality

This project aims to present a holistic understanding of the interplay between thermal perception and climate change by integrating perspectives from environmental science, psychology, sociology, and the arts.

Project team:
Tanja Granzow, Linda Toledo, Margherita Scazza, Philipp Höfele, Joerg Noller

Youth Climate Activism

This project aims to understand the role of COP spaces in shaping youth climate action, particularly with respect to the changing strategies of youth groups operating under democratic backsliding.

Project team:
Margherita Scazza, Noura Wahby

S-GRIP

The S-GRIP (Sustainability Governance in Research and Interdisciplinary Practices) project explores the intersection of political and legal sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective, investigating how the term ‘governance’ is understood in each discipline in the context of sustainability.

Project team:
Anna-Julia Saiger, Machteld Simoens

Art Matters

This project challenges the prevailing perception of Artificial Intelligence as “immaterial” by investigating the material foundations, extractive processes, and value chains upon which it relies. Artmatters is a transdisciplinary research event that will take place at FRIAS in october 2026.

Project team:
Anna-Julia Saiger, Anne Hemkendreis, Falk Tauber, Friderike Beyer, Lawrence Wilde, Lukas Wagner, Philipp Höfele, Sarah Hegenbart

YAS Guide to Interdisciplinarity

This modular project includes reflection exercises and skill sharing within the YAS, an overview and analysis of existing tools, tool boxes and advice for IDR research as well as a survey on IDR practices among different young academies.

Project team:
Britta Acksel, Friderike Beyer, Niko Schäpke, Noura Wahby, Patrick Flamm, Machteld Simoens

Glacialized Environments

This project is a radiophonic experiment that listens into icy worlds not as static backdrops of loss and despair, but as active terrains of technological, cultural, and ecological response in times of environmental crisis.

Project team:
Anne Hemkendreis, Neelakshi Joshi, Patrick Flamm

Military Drone Metabolisms

This project explores the flows of materials and energy in the industrial production and the use of military drones, and their dissipation. In particular, we are focusing on elements from the periodic table and novel entities, such as plastics.

Project team:
Lukas Wagner, Patrick Flamm

Conflicts

This project proposes a co-creative and reflective space to explore the demands, challenges, and opportunities for sustainability governance amid growing polarization and conflict.

Project team:
Niko Schäpke, Patrick Flamm, Britta Acksel, Machteld Simoens, Philipp Höfele

Transregional dimensions of energy transition

International and cross-cutting perspectives on how and in what way commodity chains, infrastructures, policies, and projects reconfigure power asymmetries and inequalities of energy transitions.

An international conference was held in June 2022 (interview with the organizers [German only]), a special issue is in preparation.

Project team:
Benjamin Schuetze, Dr. Hussam Hussein
& Thilo Wiertz

Agent-based model on land cover “Sustainable and Natural Hazard Resilient Regions”

Build first steps to establish a decision support framework to enable the development of sustainable and resilient regions by addressing environmental risks, adaptation/mitigation, vulnerability/resilience, and sustainability innovations.

Project team:
Corinna Köpke & Sahani Pathiraja

Global Debates on Biological and Linguistic Diversity

Investigating the causal impact of European empires on the relationship between biodiversity and linguistic diversity through the combined analysis of historical sources and official documents of international organizations.

Project team:
Matthias Kranke & Javier Francisco

Sustainability discourses in international organizations

Examining what and how leading international organizations define sustainability in their official documents via a mixed-methods approach (quantitative text and discourse analysis as well as qualitative content analysis).

Project team:
Thilo Wiertz & Matthias Kranke

H2info: Formation of hydrogen markets

Demonstrate the role that green hydrogen can play in reducing CO2 emissions in Germany by setting up a website that allows users to create and explore scenarios (e.g. in different sectors).

Project team:
Thilo Wiertz, Benjamin Schuetze & Severin Vierrath

Politics of legal processes

A critical, multidisciplinary examination of the growing influence of legal elements in contemporary socio-environmental interactions, the spread of environmental legal norms across multiple governance levels, and the specific role of courts and the legal system in socio-environmental conflicts. An international workshop took place in 2023; a special issue is planned for 2025.

Project team:
Cristina Espinosa & Rike Sinder

Water resilience building

Study on contextual environmental knowledge about water to understand whether and to what extent increased environmental knowledge is associated with a change in practice, for example, to better respond to emerging water disasters such as floods.

Project team:
Corinna Köpke  & Luisa Cortesi

Red kite

Monograph on the conflict between species conservation and climate protection using the example of (the protection/death of) red kites and the establishment of wind power stations from a legal and cultural anthropological perspective.

Project team:
Sarah May & Rike Sinder

Post-growth in textbooks

Analysis of how the issue of post-growth is framed and expressed in high school textbooks in three different countries (Germany, Ecuador, and Jordan).

Project team:
Cristina Espinosa, Hussam Hussein & Matthias Kranke

Imagining Future Forests in the Anthropocene

Investigation of political imaginaries about forests through a multi-scalar lens, focusing on regional and global imaginaries of future forests.

Project team:
Matthias Kranke & Ida Wallin

Modelling socio-ecological colonial trajectories

Simulation study on the historical development of plantation economies in the Caribbean in the 16th-18th centuries.

Project team:
Javier Francisco & Sahani Pathiraja

Graphic Novel “Welt im Wandel – Fünf Stories zur Umweltkrise”

Creation of a graphic novel with 5 plots on the environmental crisis. The stories are set in the past, present, and future. The aim is to create easy access to the topic, especially for pupils.

Publication: Welt im Wandel – Fünf Stories zur Umweltkrise.

Project team:
Sarah May, Ida Wallin, Cristina Espinosa, Matthias Kranke & Javier Francisco & Lea Breitsprecher

YAS Podcast

Two seasons published via Podigee:

1st season: YAS (6 episodes)

2nd season: Agri-Photovoltaik (5 episodes)

Project team:
Javier Francisco (host)

Exploring greenspace as an extreme heat adaption strategy

Exploring when and how inhabitants use green space in their daily lives, their motivations for doing so, and if green spaces are being used as a way to adapt to extreme heat events. Five German cities were selected as case studies, and data was collected using a survey.

Publications: Extreme heat experience influences public support for local climate adaptation policies in Germany & Assessing public attitudes towards urban green spaces as a heat adaptation strategy: Insights from Germany.

Project team:
Rita Sousa-Silva & Chad Zanocco

Political Economy of an undermined energy transition

Analysis of the situation and geopolitical role of the energy transition in Jordan.

Publication: Geopolitical economy of an undermined energy transition: The case of Jordan.

Project team:
Benjamin Schuetze & Hussam Hussein

Sustainability partnerships with the MENA

Application for a DAAD-funded partnership network to bring together research institutions, civil society organizations, think tanks, and public institutions active in the wider field of renewable energies and sustainability. Sustainability partnerships with the MENA (Middle East and North Africa).

Project team:
Benjamin Schuetze & Hussam Hussein

Discourses and materialities of Jordanian climate change governance

Develop a better understanding of the interaction of different discursive framings and material manifestations of Jordanian climate change governance both in Jordan and abroad, most notably at COP28.

Summary of the workshop at COP 28 & Recording of the workshop are available.

Project team:
Hussam Hussein & Benjamin Schuetze

Energy supply security in German parliamentary and legal discourse

Examination of the evolving history of energy supply security in the Federal Republic of Germany based on an analysis of parliamentary speeches, documents, and legislation.

Publications: Energieversorgungssicherheit (in Neue Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht, 2023:8) & The Role of Crises in Shifting German Energy Geopolitics.

Project team:
Rike Sinder & Thilo Wiertz

Risk of Morocco’s green hydrogen plans

Publication: Risk of Morocco’s green hydrogen plans.

Project team:
Hussam Hussein & Benjamin Schütze