Academics & Guests

This year's hosts are vegetation ecologist Sylvia Haider, AI expert Ricardo Usbeck, political scientist Sarah Engler, and developmental psychologist Manuel Bohn. The professors lay the foundation for the study program and moderate the focus interviews on the stage of the Libeskind Auditorium.

The academics advise the project groups on content: They provide an initial orientation on the project topic, clarify questions of understanding, and introduce critical and visionary perspectives. A total of 24 professors, research staff, lecturers, and experts from the entire university and beyond support the students in their first project studies.

The Leuphana Speakers are members of the university who provide content-related input for the Leuphana Semester and support us as participants and moderators at the evening events.

Guests

Werner Härdtle

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Werner Härdtle, Professor of Landscape Ecology and Conservation

   

Claudia Kalisch

©Claudia Kalisch
Claudia Kalisch, Mayoress of Lüneburg

   

Patricia Kanngießer

©Mirko Krenzel für VolkswagenStiftung
Dr. Patricia Kanngießer, Professor in Psychology at the University of Plymouth

   

Anne Lauscher

©Sarah Buth
Anne Lauscher, Professor of Data Science at the University of Hamburg

   

Claudine Nierth

©Mehr Demokratie
Claudine Nierth, political activist and artist

   

Nils Schweingruber

©Universitätklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
Nils Schweingruber, Neurologist and Co-Founder/CEO of IDM gGmbH

   

Terrell Jermaine Starr

©Terrell Jermaine Starr
Terrell Jermaine Starr, independent journalist and international speaker

   

Michael Tomasello

©Michael Tomasello
Michael Tomasello, American anthropologist and behavioural scientist

   

Marina Weisband

©Marina Weisband
Marina Weisband, Demokratie-Aktivistin & Beteiligungsgpädagogin

   

Liya Yu

©Liya Yu
Liya Yu, Politikwissenschaftlerin und Künstlerin

Hosts

Sylvia Haider

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Sylvia Haider is a vegetation ecologist and biodiversity researcher. Her main interests are the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and how biodiversity responds to global change components, such as climate change, land-use intensification, and the introduction of non-native species.

   

Manuel Bohn

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Manuel Bohn is a tenure-track assistant professor of Developmental Psychology at the Institute of Psychology in Education at Leuphana University Lüneburg. He is interested in the psychological foundations of human communication. His current research focuses on how children's everyday experiences relate to their communicative and cognitive development across cultural settings. For a broader perspective, he studies the communicative and cognitive abilities of great apes. His goal is to understand the shared and unique aspects of human cognition that allow children to learn language.

  

Ricardo Usbeck

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
In 2021, Prof. Usbeck took over the Junior Professorship for Semantic Systems at the University of Hamburg. Afterwards, in 2023, he was appointed at Leuphana University Lüneburg. He works in and leads several national and international research projects on knowledge graphs, large language models, chatbots and AI for social good. He is interested in transformation-related domains such as sustainability and creative spaces for technology. Ricardo Usbeck tries to build a bridge between research and application.

  

Sarah Engler

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Sarah Engler is Professor in Comparative Politics at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her research focuses on party competition, democratic institutions, and social inequality in Europe. She is particularly interested in how the success of anti-establishment parties poses a challenge for liberal democracy, and how mainstream parties and their voters respond to it.

  

Academics

  

Olga Abramova

©Olga Abramova
Olga Abramova is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems, especially Data Analytics, at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, since April 2024. Before, she did her post-doctoral studies at the University of Potsdam and defended her dissertation at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Her research focuses on two broad areas: (1) digitization of the individual and (2) social media analytics for society and business. She is also interested in and has contributed to replication research.

  

Alexa Böckel

©Alexa Böckel
Alexa Böckel is a researcher working on the transition to a sustainable circular economy with a focus on organizations. While her dissertation at Leuphana University examines the role of entrepreneurs in that transition, her work at Wuppertal Institutes is concentrated on promoting reuse packaging systems.

   

Carla Agha Ebrahim

©Carla Agha Ebrahim
Carla Agha Ebrahim (she/her) is a graduate of the “Studium Individuale” (B.A.) program with a passion for integrating diverse disciplines to analyze socio-political phenomena. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Universitat Pompeu Fabra and has conducted research as a fellow at the Regional Academy on the United Nations, focusing on gendered online violence against journalists. Carla works at the interface of academia, policy making, and society as part of the Resilient Democracy team at the political think tank Das Progressive Zentrum, where she currently engages with the roots of democratic deficits and rising authoritarianism among young people. She aspires to drive the transformations needed to foster just, resilient, and sustainable democracies.

   

Myriam Elschami

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Myriam Elschami is a biochemist with a PhD from Hanover University and 10 years’ international experience in laboratory research. From 2018 – 2022, she joined the Faculty of Sustainability of Leuphana University as a postdoc, where she developed ESD programmes and teachings linking chemistry and sustainability. Today, she works as policy advisor at the German Federal Environment Ministry, promoting international policy work to support the global safe handling of chemicals and waste.

   

Liselotte Hermes da Fonseca

©Liselotte Hermes da Foncesca
Liselotte Hermes da Fonseca studied German language and literature, ethnology, scandinavian studies, philosophy and art history in Hamburg, Rome and Bologna. She wrote her dissertation in ethnology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg on the topic "Questions about Life: Representations of the Knowledge of Man". She is an editor and author in the field of literature, ethnology, cultural studies, modern art and psychology, translator (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, English) and lecturer at the University of Bremen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Halle, Paderborn, Stendal-Magdeburg and Lüneburg.

    

Seraphia Heitmann

©Seraphina Heitmann
Seraphia Heitmann: is interested in YOU and research. Her work is based on four years of the study of paedagogy and psychology, an intense study of Asian cultures and languages – in Germany and abroad – Art History and many years of international research. The most recent professional activity as Assoc. Prof. at Nalanda University, India, lead her to contacts with many diverse Asian and other cultures of South- and Southeast Asia, Africa, Turkey etc., special acts of balance. With her two sides, theory and practice, she is especially interested in the topic 'shift of perspectives'. Exchange of thoughts, experiences, and selfunderstanding of intelligence may result in a shift, an opening for new ways of perceiving life. For a self-determined and invaluable lifestyle she invites everybody interested to explore the terrain of intelligence involved in a 'Shift of perspectives' and cooperate in presenting a top result.

   

Christine Heybl

©Christine Heybl
Christine Heybl studied philosophy, biology and ethnology in Potsdam and Berlin and finished her thesis about climate justice in 2016. In the field of environmental and climate protection, she gained professional experience in different environments and topics as she engaged as a freelancer for climate justice, worked for several NGOs for climate protection and was in charge of a climate adaption project in a district administration. Her main interests are organic agriculture and permaculture.

   

Laura Hille

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Laura Hille is a sociologist and media scholar, wo is writing and speaking on all things digital. Her dissertation discussed the changed relationship of humans and machines through Biohacking. Her teaching focuses on the darker sites auf our digital day-to-day and the power relations shaping it. She spent the last years following a rabbit hole into the dystopian and utopian futures envisioned by Silicon Valley.

   

Lukas Hogenschurz

©Anna Lorscheider, CSM
Lukas Hogenschurz earned his bachelor's degree in business and a master's degree in sustainability science at Leuphana University. After his studies, he worked in an international consultancy where his work focused on circular economy strategy development and implementation. In 2023, he joined the Centre for Sustainability Management at Leuphana University, where he researches circular economy measurement and transformations for businesses.

   

Robert Hoppe

©Robert Hoppe
Robert Hoppe recently earned his Master's degree in Electronic and Information Engineering from Imperial College London, with a focus on Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Computer Architecture. His Masters Thesis focused on the developed a novel system for the Management of Maritime Search and Rescue.

   

Nike Hornbostel

©Nike Hornbostel
Nike is a Change Agent, Network-Trainer and Social Solo-entrepreneur. She is living in a community of visionaries in the nature close by Lüneburg. Deeply connected in the bioregion of the Lüneburger Heide as well as driven by international management, she is happy to share her sustainable transformation.

   

Max Irmer

©Max Irmer
Max Irmer builds bridges between the present and the future, the old and new world, and analog and digital approaches. He currently works as a freelance foresight and strategy consultant, advising German SMEs, NGOs, and public institutions. Previously, he led foresight and transformation projects at an international enterprise and worked at the foresight consultancy Z_punkt. Max holds a Master's degree in Urbanism and teaches future studies, speculative design, and foresight at several universities in Germany.

   

Rebecca Kandut

©Rebecca Kandut
Rebecca Kandut is a Change Agent focusing on biodiversity and planetary health. She holds a Master's degree in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Vienna and is currently pursuing an MBA in Sustainability Management at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Her diverse experience includes participating in a science communication project on food waste framing, delivering lectures on global nutrition and planetary health, and coordinating innovative initiatives such as the Klimabonus Lüneburg.

   

Gülce Korkmaz

©Gülce Korkmaz
Gülce Korkmaz is a PhD researcher at the Joachim Herz Doctoral School of Law at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. Her research is focused on digital platform regulations in the EU and the relationship between competition law and regulation, with the esteemed scholarship of the Joachim Herz Foundation. Korkmaz completed her law bachelor’s degree in 2016 at Bilkent University in Turkey. After gaining experience as a competition lawyer, she returned to academic pursuits, serving as a research assistant at Bilkent University from 2019 to 2023. During this period, she obtained her LL.M. degree. She has continued her research at Lüneburg University since October 2023. Julia Matthäus is a researcher at the Joachim Herz Doctoral School of Law and part of Prof. Dr. Jörg Philipp Terhechte’s research team. In her PhD project, she focuses on digital constitutionalism, specifically the relationship between antitrust law and fundamental rights.

   

Johannes Lohse

©Johannes Lohse
Prof. Dr. Johannes Lohse is W1-professor of Law and Economics at Leuphana University. His research focuses on behavioral and environmental economics, in particular on public goods over generations and the influence of incentives on environmental protection. He was previously assistant and associate professor at Birmingham.

   

Ilsemargret Luttmann

©Ilsemargret Luttmann
As a long-time external lecturer at the Leuphana University Ilsemargret Luttmann enthusiastically engages in topics related to contemporary socio-cultural developments on the African continent, and she discusses questions of the colonial legacy in Europe. She built up a strong cooperation with the annual African film festival AugenBlicke in Hamburg which she turned into an integral part of her courses. Her academic interest is supported by regular visits to western African countries. Besides she works as an independent artist.

   

Julia Matthäus

©Julia Matthäus
Julia Matthäus studied law at Philipps-University in Marburg and spent two semesters in France at University Paris Sud. After her studies, she worked as a research assistant at a chair for labor law. Additionally, she gained experience as a researcher in an international law firm in Düsseldorf. She completed her legal clerkship in 2023 at the Higher Regional Court of Hamm.

    

Gefjon Off

©Gefjon Off
Gefjon Off is a postdoctoral researcher working at the Chair of Comparative Politics at the Institute of Political Science. Her research focuses on political behavior from a gender perspective and on the radical right. For instance, she explores questions such as “Who feels threatened by feminism, why do they feel threatened, and how do these threat perceptions affect people in their vote choice?”.

   

Julia Prein

©Julia Prein
Julia Prein is a developmental psychologist interested in the psychological foundations of human social interaction. Her current research focuses on individual differences in children’s social cognition across diverse communities. She particularly enjoys designing and programming interactive online picture book tasks for children.

   

Karoline Pöggel

©Karoline Pöggel
Karoline’s background and interests are diverse. Karoline studied Public Management, Environmental Sciences, and Environmental Communication and is currently enrolled in a Midwifery program in Hamburg. In her dissertation project she researches group processes of local food initiatives grounded in the tenet “Food creates Identity”. Her research interests include the social dimension of food and sustainability, the link between wellbeing and sustainability, feminist aspects of sustainability sciences as well as reproductive justice and equality in the context of midwifery work. She aims to integrate sustainability into midwifery practice.

   

Anna Sawallisch

©Anna Sawallisch
Anna Sawallisch (she/her) is a PhD student at the Institute for Social Science at the Humboldt University Berlin researching media and the political economy of development. Prior to that she studied at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, the University of Caterbury in Christchurch and the University of Copenhagen. Anna conducted research in Tajikistan, Nepal, and Ghana.

   

Valerie Scholz

©Julian Scheinkoenig
Valerie Scholz is a journalist and social entrepreneur. She is co-founder of "Facts for Friends", a social start-up with the vision to make fact-checking user-friendly and convenient. Holding a degree in media studies and journalism, having worked as a freelance journalist and in creative agencies, Valerie is a content expert with a critical journalistic mind. As a media-literacy expert, she cooperates with national and international partners on conceptualizing and carrying out media education projects. Currently, she is working at the alternative social platform holi.social, developing an innovative approach to quality content for future social platforms, while leading its editorial team.

   

Arthur Seibel

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Arthur Seibel is a professor of product development and design. In addition to AI-supported product development and tribology of machine elements, his research topics include soft robotics. This field of robotics deals with systems that are made (almost) entirely of soft materials and will be one of the start week’s topics in the focus area Intelligence::Machine.

   

Heiko Wojtkowiak

©Leuphana/Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
PD Dr. Heiko Wojtkowiak teaches Protestant Religion at Leuphana University. A special emphasis of his research is on Biblical Ethics and the formation of the Gospels. His teaching and research are guided by the approach to understand the biblical texts in their cultural world and to ask for the input of the ancient biblical as well as non-biblical voices on present ethical discourses.

Leuphana Speakers

  

Jelena Bäumler

©Leuphana/Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
Professor, Vice-President of Leuphana College, Chair of Public Law and International Law with a focus on sustainability

  

Christian Brei

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Vice-President of the Leuphana University

  

Lina Bürgener

©Leuphana
Research Assistant Institute for Sustainable Development and Learning

  

Steffi Hobuß

©Leuphana/Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
Academic Director of Leuphana College

  

Anke Karber

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Professor, Chair of Social Pedagogy with a focus on vocational education and training research and didactics

  

Laura Picht-Wiggering

©Brinkhoff-Moegenburg/Leuphana
Research assistant Leuphana College

   

Sascha Spoun

©Leuphana/Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
President of the Leuphana University