News — Geography

June 2024 – Invitation to summer colloquium

You are invited to the summer colloquium organized by geography staff members from the University of Freiburg. The „opening lecture“ will be held by Professor Christian Steiner on Thursday, July 4 at 5:30 p.m. (Rundbau Lecture Hall, Albertstraße 21), followed by a reception. On Friday, July 8, starting at 9 a.m. (Aula, KG1), several „short lectures“ by Freiburg geographers from the various working groups will follow, providing insights into current research and dissertation projects as well as planned research activities. Students, staff members, project partners and all other interested parties are cordially invited to the summer colloquium!

June 2024 – Panel discussion "Klimax event for more climate protection and climate adaptation in the business park"

Prof. Dr Rüdiger Glaser takes part in the panel discussion "Hot or ice age - measures for the climate in business parks" on 14th June 2024 at the Breisgau business park. He presents the INTERREG project Clim'Ability Care in this context, which is investigating climate adaptation in SMEs. Afterwards, representatives from companies, administration and research discuss climate protection and climate change adaptation measures in industrial estates. Blue-green infrastructures, sustainable (employee) mobility, species and landscape protection and other innovative approaches are the focus of the Breisgau business park and form best-practice measures for other business and industrial parks.

June 2024 – Clim'Ability Care Meeting in the Murg Valley

On 7th and 8th June, Prof. Dr Rüdiger Glaser, Sarah Gruner and Svenja Wittpoth will lead an excursion to the Murg Valley industrial corridor as part of the INTERREG Clim'Ability Care project. Mario Mohr, Head of the Rastatt Regional Council, and Fabienne Körner, Managing Director of the Mittelbaden Energy Agency, will introduce their tasks and objectives. Aspects of the urban climate will also be discussed by Martin Schursch, climate protection manager for the city of Rastatt. Other topics include flood protection and renaturalisation of the River Murg, which will be presented in Gernsbach by Mayor Julian Christ. Energy generation, biodiversity, the transformation of winter tourism and the pollution of watercourses and succession along the Lothar Trail round off the spectrum. On the following day, the project partners will present the status of their work.

April 2024 – Blog with student reflections on post-colonial resource geographies regarding Ghana field trip 2023

The blog on the Ghana field trip of the graduate program is finally accessible online. The field trip had been collaboratively organized and implemented by the geography departments of both UFR and University of Ghana. A group of 18 German and 13 Ghanaian students spent two weeks in the southern part of Ghana and explored questions of post-colonial resource geographies. UFR students prepared critical reflections on the field trip as a student task which can be found on the website, apart from further information on the field trip, too. More ...

April 2024 – Presentation of the INTERREG project Clim'Ability Care to mayors in the Murg Valley

Two meetings take place in the Murg Valley as part of the Clim'Ability Care project. Prof Rüdiger Glaser, project team member Sarah Gruner and Master's student Julie Weisser present the project in Bischweier. Two days later, Mayor Julian Christ receives them in Gernsbach. After a very informative exchange on the status of climate protection and climate adaptation in the municipality, they take a tour of the newly built flood protection facilities along the Wörthgarten and Katz'scher Garten.

March 2024 - Workshop and exchange meetings INTERREG-project Clim'Ability Care

In the past two weeks, three exchange meetings were organised by Prof. Rüdiger Glaser, Sarah Gruner and Svenja Wittpoth. In close cooperation with the Rastatt District Office and the Mittelbaden Energy Agency, we took a closer look at the governance structures with regard to climate adaptation and their future orientation in the district. A workshop was held to involve a wide range of specialist departments - from the health department and heavy rain risk management to the forestry and building authorities - as well as the important local company Daimler Truck. In addition to an exciting initial exchange with the local stakeholders in focus, these events lead the way for the establishment of a climate-resilient corporate culture in the Murg Valley!

February 2024 – Lecture as part of the Clim'Ability Care project on 15.02.2024

Rüdiger Glaser and Sarah Gruner give a presentation on "From climate criticality, consequences and impact pathways to new care in Clim'Ability Care - Adaptations, communication, governance, "being ready" and personal responsibility" at the Clim' Ability Care Kick-Off Meeting Corporate Network in Landau.

January 2024 – Dissertational thesis Janika Kuge

Janika Kuge defended her dissertational thesis titled "struggles on sanctuary policies - socio-spatial strategies within contestations of migration politics in the USA" on Januar 29th, 2024 with great success. Her work was part of the chair for economic geography and sustainable development and the supervisor was Prof. Dr. Annika Mattissek. We congratulate Janika Kuge and wish her all the best!

January 2024 - New Stuff Member at the Chair of Climate Geography (CliG)

We welcome Helge Jentsch, our new Research Associate at CliG. His past work includes studying local wind systems and contributing to R package development. Starting January 2024, Helge is focused on advancing our research on extreme weather events in the European Alps. We look forward to his insights and contributions to our projects, wishing him a successful start in Freiburg.

January 2024 - Successful doctorate at the Chair of Physical Geography

Franck Schätz successfully completed his dispuation on "Prerequisites and limits of the evaluation of climate-relevant information of historical text sources with the help of automation processes" on 24.01.2024. Congratulations to him!

January 2024 - Findings from study project on neighborhood life in Strasbourg

A group of 16 students from the Master program in Geography of Global Change conducted a study project on neighborhood life in Strasbourg in the summer term of 2023. Using the districts of Hautepierre, Krutenau, Neudorf and the city center as examples, the students analyzed how these districts are socially (re)produced by everyday activities of the inhabitants. The findings from the study project have now been documented in the form of short texts and illustrative videos dokumentiert.

January 2024 – 14. D-A-CH Permafrost Conference

Lucia Götz and Lisa Rehn from the Working Group for Geomorphology and Recent Morphodynamics participated in the 14th D-A-CH Permafrost Conference in the Rhön region at the beginning of January. Lucia Götz presented preliminary results of her bachelor's thesis. The feedback was very positive, providing a solid foundation for lively professional exchange with scientists at various career levels.

January 2024 – A new face in the degree program coordination team

We are delighted to welcome Anne-Julchen Müller as our new degree program coordinator. She took over this important task at the turn of the year from Monika Nethe, who had worked in this role for many years. We would like to thank Monika Nethe warmly for her coordination work - and we are delighted to have a new face in our midst and look forward to working with Anne-Julchen!

January 2024 – Guest researcher at the chair of Geography of Global Change

Line Kvartborg Vestergaard will spend 2 months as a guest researcher at the chair of Geography of Global Change. Line is a PhD fellow with the project RE-ANIMATE and researches the use of Doughnut Economics in the city of Amsterdam within the city government and in civil-led neighborhood initiatives.

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.