Mennatullah is an urban planner and visual thinker who aims to inspire sustained and empowered urban development through communication towards a just socio-spatial and visual reality. Mennatullah have long been fascinated by the way knowledge, power, and (in)justice are manifested in and co-construct cities and the public sphere. She is currently a visiting scholar at Columbia university, research associate and PhD candidate at The Technical university of Berlin, an associated researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space (IRS) in Erkner, Germany and an affiliated assistant lecturer at the department of urban planning and design in Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.

She is moved by the exploration of ‘agency’, ‘justice’ and ‘assumptions’ within socio-spatial everyday encounters. She is interested in how to enable the vulnerable majority and how to develop communities in an integrated manner. She certainly practices urban planning, design and education as approaches to empowerment with an aim to cover the gap in theory building in contested urban contexts. As a multipotentialite interested in intersections, she deals with urban planning as a developmental multidisciplinary field.

She believes in the role of research in driving local development and national policies as well as the importance of transferring knowledge and systems between global north and south through win-win means. As she views learning and research as two-way cyclic processes, the impact she strives for is the growth of all the humans she meets along her journey. In particular, she is interested in experimental methodologies and participatory action research through which she aspires to take values into action by connecting justice and urban planning.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Egypt, Mediatized World

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Studium Politische Wissenschaften, Philosophie und Volkswirtschaftslehre, seit den 90er Jahre als Wissenschaftlerin und Autorin im Forschungsfeld Nachhaltige Entwicklung aktiv.
Sie hat sich intensiv mit der Bedeutung von Handwerk für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung beschäftigt (wegen seiner zeitintensiven und mit hoher Befriedigung verbundenen Arbeitsweise und den zahlreichen Kompetenzen die wir für eine Postwachstumsgesellschaft und den Klimawandel brauchen: langlebige, kundenindividuelle Produkte, Unikate, Dienstleistungen, Instandhaltung/Reparatur), mit Wachstumstheorie und neuen Formen der Arbeit. Gründerin und Vorstand des Runden Tisches Reparatur, des Ernährungsrates Kiel, Moderation des Netzwerks Rechte der Natur. Autorin folgender Bücher: Das Handwerk der Zukunft (1997), Die Könnensgesellchaft (2007), mit Fritz Hinterberger zusammen Wachstumswahn (2014).

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Michael is a critical geographer who studies the intersecting social, economic and political inequalities caused by the impacts of, and our responses to, climate change. His research is informed by critical theory and interrogates the concepts of climate justice, adaptation, resilience and intersectionality. Michael is an Assistant Professor of Climate Justice and Urban Sustainability at the Department of Environmental Studies at SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry in Syracuse, NY. He obtained his PhD in Human Geography from the University of Manchester, UK.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Sub-Saharan Africa (Rwanda, Malawi, and São Tomé & Príncipe, in particular), North America

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Doctoral Student (Uni Bonn, L. Schipper supervision) at IDOS (German Institute of Development & Sustainability) in the Environmental Governance program within the Klimalog research project. My current research in the coastal region of South India (Tamil Nadu) focuses on coastal adaptation policies/measures in the context of contested sand resources. Applying a political ecology lens, I aim to investigate climate change adaptation regimes within wider socio-political processes that ultimately (re)define who has access over (sand) resources. Further, I am interested in using documentary photography as a means to visually explore contested land- and seascapes where environmental justice concerns are prevalent. 

Having a background in environmental sciences my focus shifted from natural sciences towards questions of responsibility and justice in my two masters programs on Environmental Ethics and Sustainability Science. Having studied in Lima, Lisbon and Kiel, I am passionate about coastal regions and inter- as well as transdisciplinary knowledge transfer. During my time at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, I was able to broaden my view connecting climate issues with migration, agriculture and biodiversity with partner countries from three continents. I currently am a PhD Candidate at Vienna University, in a project in Ethics.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Wetlands, Coastal regions, Amazonian region

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