How does a gold mine become an exemplary case of ‘cooperation’? THESys researchers Beril Ocaklı and Tobias Krüger, together with co-authors Marco Janssen and Ulan Kasymov, pursue this question in their new article published in Ecological Economics. Taking the discourse seriously: Rational self-interest and resistance to mining in Kyrgyzstan Focusing on Kyrgyzstan’s third largest gold deposit…
Seven IRI THESys Members have been successful in winning the bid for the Einstein Research Unit “Climate and Water under Change” together with a 28 PI consortium including Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité. With the funding from the Berlin University Alliance through the Einstein Foundation, the research team will set up an…
Following his election by the Academic Council in April this year, THESys Member Prof. Christoph Schneider took up his duties as Humboldt-Universität’s new Vice President for Research on August 2, 2021. “At the moment, we are getting to know each other as a team and ‘grooving’ with each other in the various work processes. I’m…
With an opening ceremony, the Humboldt Forum opened its doors to the public on July 20, 2021. One of six inaugural exhibitions is the show of the Humboldt Labor “After Nature”, to which also a number of THESys researchers have contributed. The exhibition “After Nature” addresses the interactions between climate change and biodiversity loss, as…
At the THESys Summer School ‘Transformative Human-Environment Research & Participatory Methods’ in September 2019, doctoral researchers, faculty, as well as a handful of members of the public gathered in a final ‘fishbowl’ discussion to discuss the preceding week’s lectures, discussions, and practicums on the democratization of knowledge production. This Discussion Paper ‘How activist should scientists…
Our interdisciplinary dialogue occurred online on Friday, 11 June, organised by our decolonial research group. We explored how coloniality influences knowledge production within academia and what alternatives exist to break the dynamics of reproducing social injustice within our research practices. Two key experts, Dr Noa K. Ha and Dr Antony Pattathu, highlighted examples of their…
The event saw the THESys community come together and open an explorative dialogue on the past, current and future role of women in transformation research. THESys Members Bettina König, Ina Säumel & Gretchen Bakke discussed themes ranging from career trajectory, to the role of family to the challenges and opportunities for women within the emerging…
On April 22nd, a small group from IRI THESys was able to preview the inaugural exhibition of the Humboldt Labor within the newly renovated Humboldt Forum titled ‘Nach der Natur’ (After Nature). Adhering to all current COVID-19 regulations, THESys researchers and colleagues had the chance to see their own work featured in the exhibition which addresses climate change and biodiversity loss, as well as global challenges to democracy.
On July 1, 2021 the new transdisciplinary science communication project ‘AnthropoScenes’ will launch. Funded by the Berlin University Alliance, the so-called ‘Experimental Laboratory’ uses theatrical formats to engage diverse publics on the topic of water in Berlin-Brandenburg. The project is coordinated by the Theater of the Anthropocene and the Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) and sees water researchers from the region, including geographers from Adlershof, providing content and developing stage performances together with artists from the Theater of the Anthropocene. Critically, AnthropoScenes will be an open process, whereby scientific content will be created together with different audiences to feed into the performances and research. The project team aims to compile its findings and incorporate them into a game show format that will be presented to an international audience at the Humboldt Laboratory in 2024.
As part of the World Health Summit, THESYs Director Jörg Niewöhner and Director of the Institute of Virology at Charité Christian Drosten recorded a live interview in the podcast ‘Talking Science’. The fourth episode of the series titled ‘Extremer als es uns gut tut – Was Klimawandel mit Pandemien zu tun hat und Umweltschutz mit…
