1 September 2026

State-funded and initiative-run projects often fail to achieve the intended impact in crisis situations. For example, the Ebola crisis in Africa and earthquake relief efforts in Haiti have shown that many financial resources do not automatically translate into improvements for the communities affected. Given climate change’s impact on the health of particularly vulnerable groups and the increasing scale of relief and emergency interventions, it is therefore essential to understand the epistemically grounded factors that determine whether these partnership projects between institutions and initiatives succeed or fail. Prof. Brooke Ackerly will investigate this—based on political science research on re-negotiating democracy and fundamental rights—as part of her visiting professorship.

This is a transatlantic bridge professorship under the Volkswagen Foundation’s funding program of the same name. The program is aimed at internationally renowned professors in the humanities and social sciences who are currently based in the United States and wish to work simultaneously in both the United States and Germany. Prof. Ackerly, who is coming to Hamburg from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, will receive €285,000 and will work at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences over the next 36 months. The focus will be on developing research-based recommendations for action aimed at local groups, policymakers, development aid workers, major foundations, and government donor organizations.

Prof. Ackerly will collaborate closely with Prof. Antje Wiener, PhD, a professor of political science specializing in global governance in the Department of Social Science, who played a leading role in preparing the grant application. Collaborations with Prof. Dr. Peter Niesen, a professor of political theory, and Prof. Dr. Vera E. Troeger, a professor of comparative politics in the Department of Political Science, as well as with researchers from the CLICCS Climate Cluster of Excellence, the DFG-funded Research Unit PROMISE, and the DFG-funded Graduate Program Collective Decision-Making are also planned. Prof. Brooke Ackerly will also offer courses on selected topics from International Political Theory, Feminist Political Theory, and Methods of Grounded Normative Theory in the coming semester.

Contact: Prof. Antje Wiener, PhD FAcSS MAE, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Science, Subject group Political Science, Email: antje.wiener@uni-hamburg.de