20 August 2026

Photo: UHH/von Wieding

We are pleased to share three pieces of news today from the department’s research division! Congratulations to all the researchers involved!

• Volkswagen Foundation: €285,000 for a Bridge Professorship held by Prof. Brooke Ackerly, PhD, at the University of Hamburg
• Extension of the Research Training Group "Urban Future-Making: Scopes of Action in Professional Practice Across Time and Space"
• Humboldt Research Fellowship for Dr. Melanie Brazzell (Harvard University)

Volkswagen Foundation: €285,000 for a Bridge Professorship held by Prof. Brooke Ackerly, PhD, at the University of Hamburg

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

Extension of the Research Training Group "Urban Future-Making: Scopes of Action in Professional Practice Across Time and Space"

In cities, numerous pressing issues concerning the future—such as climate policy, transportation, housing, infrastructure, and energy supply—are constantly being renegotiated through a wide variety of processes. Cities are thus central sites of socio-ecological transformation. In the Research Training Group Urban Future-Making: Scopes of Action in Professional Practice Across Time and Space, led at HafenCity University, researchers are investigating how various stakeholders in these fields—such as architects, engineers, administrative specialists, and planners—maintain their capacity to act and shape the future in times of heightened urgency and uncertainty.

The program, which enables doctoral studies within a structured, interdisciplinary framework, also includes Prof. Dr. Christine Hentschel (Professorshipof Sociology: Security and Resilience) and Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid (Professorship of Sociology, in particular Conduct of Life and Sustainability) from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, as well as Prof. Dr. Benno Fladvad (Junior Professorship for Natural Science Peace Research with a focus on Climate and Security) from the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences at the University of Hamburg. In June 2026, the German Research Foundation extended the Research Training Group for a second funding phase, running from October 2026 to March 2031.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Benno Fladvad, University of Hamburg, Department of Earth System Sciences, Email: benno.fladvad@uni-hamburg.de
Prof. Dr. Christine Hentschel, University of Hamburg, Department of Social Sciences, Email: christine.hentschel-2@uni-hamburg.de
Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid, University of Hamburg, Department of Socioeconomics, Email: katharina.manderscheid@uni-hamburg.de

Humboldt Research Fellowship for Dr. Melanie Brazzell (Harvard University)

Dr. Melanie Brazzell from Harvard University will spend several months each summer in 2026, 2027, and 2028 at the University of Hamburg as part of a Humboldt Research Fellowship, working in Prof. Dr. Nina Perkowski’s group in the Department of Social Sciences on empirical social research, with a particular focus on violence and security studies.

With these fellowships, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports exceptionally qualified early career researchers from around the world. They can carry out their research projects in Germany, with funding periods ranging from six to 24 month

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Nina Perkowski, Universität Hamburg, Fachbereich Sozialwissenschaften, E-Mail: nina.perkowski@uni-hamburg.de

The information is taken from the University of Hamburg’s press release.