News
January 2024 – Coline Chardon is our new staff member in the Geography of Global Change
Coline Chardon has joined the Geography of Global Change team as research assistant at the beginning of January. She is employed in the MUTUAL project "Municipal Transformative Communities for Local Economies Beyond Growth", which is funded by the DFG and started on 01.01.2024. More information about the project here.
November 2023 – Clim'Ability CARE Meeting
Sarah Gruner, Svenja Wittpoth and Rüdiger Glaser presented the climate adaptation concept for the industrial corridor in the Murg Valley at the Clim'Ability CARE Work seminar on 22 November 2023 at Offenburg University of Applied Sciences.
October 2023 – Sarah Gruner is our new staff member in Physical Geography
Since last summer Sarah Gruner has joined the Physical Geography team as a research assistant. She is employed on the two INTERREG projects Clim'Ability Care – Transformation of business parks and industrial clusters in view of climate change: towards a new transnational corporate culture in the Upper Rhine Region"and RiverDiv – Protection of aquatic diversity and reduction of water pollution on the Wieslauter – Climate change-adapted management.
September 2023 – Strasbourg study project now on Instagram
The study project on neighborhood life in Strasbourg can now be followed on Instagram. A group of master's students in geography are exploring how several neighborhoods are shaped and socially (re)constructed through practices, discourses and representations in everyday life.
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September 2023 – Climate Academy 2023 focussing on 'planned relocation'
Funded by Munich Re Foundation and co-organized by United Nations University, the Climate Academy called together researchers, practitioners and policy makers from all over the world to push forward critical understanding of 'planned relocation'. Friedrich Neu was invited to join both the virtual sessions (see playlist on YouTube) and the in-person meeting week in Dakar, Senegal. In three working groups, the 25 participants jointly produced a commentary paper that will be published soon, wrote a policy brief for practitioners, and are about to launch an online depository with useful data for decision makers. For further information please see the download center.
August 2023 – Joint student field trip to/in Ghana with graduate geography students & lecturers of UFR and University of Ghana
The Ghana field trip of the graduate program led UFR students and lecturers for the first time in the entire history to West Africa. The field trip had been organized by Prof. Hartmut Fünfgeld and Friedrich Neu in collaboration with Dr. Austin Ablo, Dr. Ernest Agyemang and Dr. Bismark Asitoakor (all from UG). A group of 18 German and 13 Ghanaian students spent two weeks in the southern part of Ghana and explored questions of resource geographies during interactions with company representatives (e.g. gold miners), basic workers (e.g. cocoa farmers or fish mongers), and decision makers (e.g. local council officials or chiefs). A blog on the field trip will soon be available.
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July 2023 – Lecture at the Bildungswerk Vogtsburg about climate change n southwest Germany
Rüdiger Glaser gives a lecture at the Bildungswerk Vogtsburg on 12.7.2023 about "Climate change in southwest Germany: consequences and options for action in agriculture". The heat wave and the increasing drought of recent weeks, which is also becoming more and more obvious in the landscape in the Kaiserstuhl, the storm the day before and the hot and humid weather provided the appropriate setting for the very well-attended event. The audience was correspondingly eager for discussion.
July 2023 – Friedrich Neu presents insights about (im)mobilities in Ghana’s Volta Delta at ECM Network
The newly created ‘Environmental and Climate Mobilities Network’ was launched with a conference hosted at the Department of Geography and Regional Research of University of Vienna. In a perfectly organized setting, where most sessions were accessible via zoom and even recorded for future public access, Friedrich Neu gave a talk named '(Im)Mobilities in the face of coastal erosion and flooding: Insights from Anlo-Ewe communities at the shores of Ghana’s Volta River Delta’. He contrasted two case studies of coastal communities – one with state-led resettlement on reclaimed land, and another one with autonomous types of adaptation.
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June 2023 – Carola Fricke changes to Saarland University
Dr. Carola Fricke accepted the appointment to Saarland University. She leaves the University of Freiburg to take up her post as junior professor of Human Geography with a special focus on Europe on 15 May 2023. This also marks the end of her funding as a research assistant and fellow in the Margarete von Wrangell habilitation program.
June 2023 – Jan Blöthe on 3SAT and SWR on the glacier collapse in the Dolomites
On the afternoon of 11.06.2023, a large part of the southern summit of the Fluchthorn in Tyrol collapsed. The rockfall comprised more than 100000 m3 of material, which shifted rapidly to the valley below - fortunately, no one was injured in this event. Are such events becoming more likely due to climate change and what effects on the high mountain landscape of the Alps should we expect in the future? Jan Blöthe talked about this with Gregor Steinbrenner in "3sat Magazin NANO" and with Ralf Caspary in the programme "SWR2 Impuls".
May 2023 – Keynote speech about climate change and health
At the fourth plenary session of the Municipal Health Conference "Climate Change and Health - Perspectives for the Future" in Offenburg on May 25, 2023, Rüdiger Glaser will give a keynote speech entitled "Tuscany in Baden? - How will we live here in the future?". This will be followed by a panel discussion on "Climate change and health" together with the other speakers.
In keeping with the theme, there is a stele with the high-water mark of 1882 opposite the conference venue on the Mühlbach.
May 2023 - Visit to the "Centre for Interdisciplinary Ageing and Care Research”
In May, Nora Winsky visited Prof. Dr. Ulla Kriebernegg with her “Age and Care Research Group” in Graz, Austria. A multifold programme consisting of workshops, film evening and round tables was set up for international scholars to discuss intersectional approaches to age(ing). The stay for interdisciplinary exchange was funded by the Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Freiburg.
April 2023 – Presentations & Collaboration during Visit of Researchers from University of Ghana
In late April and early May, Dr. Ernest Agyemang and Dr. Austin Ablo from the University of Ghana pay a visit to the Geography Institute. The purpose of their stay that is funded by an Erasmus+ grant is to strengthen the bilateral cooperation both in science and teaching. On 3.5. at 12 p.m. they present current research projects, they connect with fellow researchers from ABI and ACT, and also promote the preparation of the joint excursion to Ghana in the MSc programme by sharing their own perspectives on postcolonialism in a preparatory meeting.
March 2023 – Rüdiger Glaser gives a lecture in Ammerbuch
At the invitation of the Volksbank in Ammerbuch, Rüdiger Glaser will give a lecture on "Global Climate Change and Local Impacts in Southwest Germany" on 30.03.2023. In the second part of the lecture evening, "green investment opportunities" will be presented. This will be followed by an interesting and stimulating discussion around these two topics.
March 2023 – Success for Contribution to the AAG Film Festival 2023
A set of cross-media contributions emerged as part of the study project on touristification in Barcelona. One of these films produced by Yannick Layer with other students has now gained particular attention. It was selected as one of eight video contributions at the geographical film festival of the AAG Conference 2023 in Denver. Successfully peer-reviewed, the film is now available as open access publication on the online platform FilmGeographies: here