Summer School
Act together! Stand up for a democratic climate discourse!

Astrid Thews (M.A. Cultural Anthropology; Uppsala University, Sweden) has been head of the Society | Politics department at the adult education center since May 2021. From 2011 to 2016 she worked as a cultural manager in Cairo/Egypt. Since 2016 she has been working as a trainer in cultural management and as a political educator. Her focus lies on the systemic view of groups and on supporting participants’ experiences of self-efficacy. Astrid Thews enjoys working in and with heterogeneous teams and groups, both in general and in seminars.

I, yo, eu • was born and raised in a western, eurocentric, young democracy • have learned, studied, unlearned, discovered and accepted gaps • have migrated • can still remember power and water cuts • try to live with little plastic, but that hardly works • ride a bike or train, unfortunately no longer both • am happy to share my grammatical mistakes • love spring, carbonated water, asking questions and the spaces in between • Hochschule > audiovisual communication > “something social” > further education > education > culture > politics & society > ?

Dr.-Ing. Alexander Heim is a consultant to the institute management at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy IEG. He looks back on more than ten years of professional experience in the energy industry. He has led strategic lighthouse projects and has been particularly involved in techno-economic evaluation in the context of hydrogen infrastructure, coupled energy systems and large-scale electrical storage systems.

Anika Hotzel is a scientific associate at the hydraulic engineering laboratory at the Hochschule Bochum. Her research focuses on improving flood warning systems by using artificial intelligence. She has already worked on several projects on the topics of dam control, various hydrological models and heavy rain prevention. As part of her doctorate, she is currently developing a long short-term memory for simulating discharge time series.

Christiane Falge is Professor of Health and Diversity at the Hochschule für Gesundheit in Bochum. Her work focuses on migration, community health and health inequalities. As a medical anthropologist, she pursues a post-migrant, collaborative approach and in this context founded the Bochum City Lab in 2016 as a place for non-hierarchical, decolonizing knowledge production and community empowerment. The aim of the City Lab is to produce new, intervention-linked knowledge that leads to community activism aimed at reducing health inequalities. She is currently researching possible connections between community research, political activism and transformations.

Maren Solmecke studied law at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and at the Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal. She has also been active in the climate movement for several years, particularly in the field of climate education. As a scholarship holder of the Joachim-Herz-Promotionskollegs für Recht und Transformation der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, she is currently researching solutions to legal problems related to the climate crisis. Her doctoral project is devoted to the legal issues surrounding the implementation and enforcement of a UN fund for climate-related loss and damage, as decided at COP27.

In 2017, Franca Hollmann began her Bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Development at the Hochschule Bochum. Her enthusiasm for mobility was soon awakened and in 2020 she started working as a student assistant under Prof. Dr.-Ing. Iris Mühlenbruch at the Institut für Mobilität und Verkehrssysteme. After completing her Bachelor of Science, she began her Master’s degree in environmental engineering and the position of student assistant became a research assistant. Since the end of 2023, she has been a part-time research associate and project manager for the THALESruhr research project with transfer project 3: redesigning street spaces, promoting active mobility.

Lili Depka lives and studies in Bochum. Since 2020 she has been studying Sustainable Development with a focus on infrastructure and transport at the Hochschule Bochum. She works part-time in the THALES transfer project at the Hochschule Bochum to promote active mobility in municipalities and also at Planersocietät in Dortmund, a planning office for mobility and urban planning.

Kathrin Römisch is Professor for Special Education and Inclusion at the ev. Hochschule RWL in Bochum in Bochum and deputy director of the Bochum Center for Disability Studies (BODYS).

Sherin El Safty moved from East Westphalia to the Ruhr area to study social sciences with a focus on cultural and gender theories. After various professional positions, even during her studies (including at EDITION F, FACE@RUB, Stiftung Mercator), her path led her to UniverCity Bochum. Here she is responsible for press and public relations as well as event management. From 2022 to 2023, Sherin El Safty also co-founded and directed the podcast “Pottgedanken – the podcast on identity and home in the post-migrant Ruhr area”.

Abeer Janes is a research associate at the Geographical Institute of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Her research interests include sustainable urban development, socio-ecological and transformative research. She has already worked on various interdisciplinary research projects dealing with topics of sustainable development and questions of the energy transition, plastic avoidance and climate change adaptation. She is currently working on her doctorate on the topic of sustainable district development in urban contexts.