About me
I joined the research group Cultural Geography at the Institute of Geography in September 2021. Here, I am teaching different courses of Human Geography, and I am doing research on air technologies and infrastructures, urban mobilities and the politics of planning.
Previously, I worked as researcher and lecturer at the Department of Geography at University of Bonn (2019-2021) and the Department of Human Geography at Goethe University Frankfurt (2014-2019). In my dissertation, I dealt with the globally circulating policy model Bus Rapid Transit and its controversial implementation in Dar es Salaam. I was a member of the graduate school URBANgrad at Technical University of Darmstadt, and held a scholarship from the Hans Böckler foundation (2014-2018). I completed my M.A. in Urban Geography in 2014 and my B.A. in Area Studies Asia/Africa and Human Geography in 2011. I studied at Humboldt University Berlin, the State University of Zanzibar and Université Rennes II.
Contact
Institute of Geography
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität
Johann-Joachim-Becher-Weg 21
55099 Mainz
Room: 02-175
Phone: +49 6131 39 27462
Research Interests
Politics of Infrastructures and Technologies, More-than-human Geographies, Political Ecology, Urban Natures, Policy Mobilities, Feminist and Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies, Human-Technology-Environment Relations, Digital Geography, Ethnography, European Metropolitan Areas (Berlin, Paris, Rhine-Main), Indian Ocean World: Eastern Africa and India
Research Projects
My current project “Urban air in crisis: Changing human-air relations and technological mediation” draws on the spatialities, mobilities and materialities of urban air to examine the transforming relationships between air, humans, technologies, plants and particles from a transdisciplinary perspective.
Previously, I worked on the project Assembling Bus Rapid Transit in the Global South.
Publications
2023 (forthcoming, together with C. Tristl) Western Modernity in Crisis: (De-)Constructions of Plural and Alternative Forms of Social Organization. Edited collection for Society and Space Forum.
2023 (under revision) Volumetric breathing: Verticality and horizontality in South Indian metro systems In: Ephemera. Theory & Politics in Organization.
2023 (under revision) Moos. In: Pütz, R. & A. Schlottmann (eds.): Kleinigkeiten zwischen den Arten. Stichworte zu einer mehr-als-menschlichen Welt. Göttingen: Wallstein.
2022 Mediating infrastructural discipline: Established practices and changing structures of Dar es Salaam’s transport sector. In: Urban Forum (online first). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-022-09477-5
2022 Dar es Salaam’s bus rapid transit: why it’s been a long, bumpy ride. In: The Conversation. Academic rigour, journalistic flair. Published 12 May 2022. https://theconversation.com/dar-es-salaams-bus-rapid-transit-why-its-been-a-long-bumpy-ride-181486.
2021 Co-producing urban transport systems: adapting a global model in Dar es Salaam. In: Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 17:1, 47-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1862545.
2020 Assembling Bus Rapid Transit in the Global South: Translating global models, materialising infrastructure politics. London: Routledge.
2020 Konzeptentwicklung für eine kritische Exkursionsdidaktik für Studienanfänger*innen in der Geographie. (with Katja Thiele): Bonner Zentrum für Hochschullehre – Zertifikatsprogramm Professionelle Lehrkompetenz für die Hochschule. Bonn: University of Bonn. https://www.bzh.uni-bonn.de/de/fuer-lehrende/individuelle-lehr-lernprojekte-dokumentationen/Projektdokumentation_Jacobsen_Thiele.pdf
2018 Pedestrian Mobility for Urban Growth. Walking and its Links to Transportation. Practical Guidance and Good Practice Examples. (with Carrigan, A.; J. Babinard; M. King; C, Kost; J. Mason; L. Nadal and C. Van Eyken): Washington: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/157521557142749465/pdf/Practical-Guidance-and-Good-Practice-Examples.pdf
2018 Unemployment Benefit Recipients. Causes, Reactions and Consequences of Housing Relocations. (with N. Grotefendt, T. Kohlsdorf & L. Wegener) In: Helbrecht, I. (ed.): Gentrification and Resistance. Researching Displacement Processes and Adaptation Strategies. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 161-187.
2017 Temporalities of Assembling Transport Systems. Presences and Absences in an Intermittent Process. In: Mewes, J. S. & E. Sørensen (eds.): Ethnographies of Objects in Science and Technology Studies. Ruhr-University Bochum, 52-64. http://ojs.ub.rub.de/index.php/EOO/article/view/630/598
2016 Die Wohnsituation von ALG II Empfänger_innen in Berlin. Prozesse wenn der Umzug naht. (with N. Grotefendt, T. Kohlsdorf & L. Wegener) In: Helbrecht, I. (ed.): Gentrifizierung in Berlin. Verdrängungsprozesse und Bleibestrategien. Bielefeld: transcript, 185-213.
2015 Schnellbusse auf der Überholspur. Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit als Wegbereiter nachhaltiger urbaner Mobilität?. In: RaumPlanung (182/6-2015) & TRIALOG (120/121-2/2015), 66-73.
2013–2014 Collectors between Formality and Informality (Johannesburg), Bottle Collectors in Public Urban Space (Berlin). Blog The (in)formal city (with Tebogo Ramatlo) https://informalcity.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/collectors-between-formal-and-informal-structures-part-2/
2010 „Wir wollen den Besten für Tansania“. Deutsche Welle, Afrika. http://www.dw.com/de/wir-wollen-den-besten-für-tansania/a-6161388
Activities
since 2021 Erasmus+ coordinator (Department of Geography at Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz)
since 2020 Owner of certificate “Professional Teaching Competence for Higher Education” (awarded by Zentrum für Hochschullehre, University of Bonn)
since 2019 Reviewing for peer-reviewed journals (Antipode, Urban Studies, Applied Mobilities, etc.)
since 2014 Field research in Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Kochi, Chennai, Paris, Rhein-Main area, Berlin and other German cities
09/2023 Session organization at Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, Frankfurt: “Geographien der Luft: Teilchen, Technologien und Turbulenzen” (together with Tino Petzold and Till Straube)
09/2023 Talk at Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, Frankfurt: “Moose und Menschen in Koexistenz: Technologische Mediationen, evidenzbasierte Kalkulationen und diskursive Verhandlungen urbaner Luftqualität”
07/2023 Lecture and workshop at International Forster Summer School, Mainz: “Something in the air: Urban breathability and the rise of air quality technologies“
01/2023 Talk at Neue Kulturgeographie Tagung, Halle: “Geographien der Luft” (together with Tino Petzold and Till Straube)
01/2023 Session organization at Neue Kulturgeographie Tagung, Halle: “Die westliche Moderne in der Krise: (De-)Konstruktionen pluraler und alternativer gesellschaftlicher Organisation” (together with Christiane Tristl)
11/2022-11/2023 Co-speaker of AK Digitale Geographien (together with Leonie Büttner, Yannick Ecker and Astrid Matejcek) and organization of AK Meeting and Workshop: “Digital Disruptions” (together with Verena Brinks, Astrid Matejcek, Rupert Neuhöfer, Julia Verne and Julian Zschocke)
10/2022-09/2023 Internal university research funding for research project “Urban air in crisis” (Research and Technology Transfer, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
09/2022 Talk at RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, Newcastle: “Digitising air, commodifying nature: A critical take on the innovation of air purification”
06/2022 Talk at Department of Geography and Geoscience, FAU Erlangen: “Atmende Pflanzen, Menschen und Technologien: Die Digitalisierung von urbaner Luft” (online)
09/2021 Workshop at Humangeographische Sommerschule Digital Geographies, FAU Erlangen: “Digitized Natures” (online, together with Astrid Matejcek, Julia Poerting, Julian Rochlitz, Julia Verne and Oleg Zurmühlen)
01/2020 Assistance of the organisation of Neue Kulturgeographie Tagung, Bonn: “Technocultures/Technoscapes” (convened by Julia Verne and Nadine Marquardt)
09/2019 Talk at Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, Kiel: “When the Travelling Model Arrives: Adaptation and Resistance in Global Infrastructure Planning”
09/2019 Talk at Vellore Institute of Technology: “When Transport Infrastructures Encounter Water: Perspectives from the Indian Ocean Coast”
01/2019 Talk at Neue Kulturgeographie Tagung, Eichstätt: “Bus Rapid Transit: Disziplinierende Technologie oder ‘modernes Minibus-System’?”
01/2018 Talk at Neue Kulturgeographie, Freiburg: “Gathering ‘Global Forms’: Materialisations of a Globally Circulating Transport Model”
11/2017-02/2019 Erasmus+ coordinator (Department of Human Geography at Goethe University Frankfurt)
08/2017 Talk at RGS-IBG Annual International Conference, London: “Global Consultants in the Global South: Expertise, Ideology and Development Aid”
11/2016 Talk at Sustainable Transport in East Africa Conference, Nairobi: “Mass Rapid Transit: Options for East African Cities” (together with Achieng Abira)
09/2016 Talk at 4S/EAAST Conference, Barcelona: “Assembling Bus Rapid Transit: Planning Controversies of the Material and Operational”
03/2016 Talk at Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco: “Approaching the Objects Themselves: Methodological Theorisations of Global BRT Models”
03/2015 Talk at PhD Training Week: Decentralizing Infrastructures in East Africa, Dar es Salaam: “Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit: The User as Co-Producer?”
12/2014-11/2018 PhD scholarship (Hans-Böckler foundation)
Teaching:
Summer term 2023
- Postkoloniale Geographien: Kontinuitäten und Brüche (Seminar, BSc Geography)
- Wirtschaftsgeographie (Seminar, BSc/BEd Geography)
Winter term 2022/23
- Multiple Mobilitäten (Seminar and Empirical Field Trips to Frankfurt, BSc Geography)
- Academic Skills II (Seminar, MA Geography)
Summer term 2022
- Stadt- und Sozialgeographie (Seminar, BSc/BEd Geography)
- Urbane Natur: Kulturgeographische Perspektiven (Seminar and Empirical Field Trip to Berlin, BSc Geography)
Winter term 2021/22
- Wirtschaftsgeographie (Seminar, BSc/BEd Geography)
- Das Fahrrad in der Stadt: Kulturen – Politiken – Technologien (Seminar and Empirical Field Trips to Rhine-Main Area, BSc Geography)
Prior teaching at University of Bonn
- Humangeographie Aufbau: Glokale Verflechtungen, Stadtgeographie, Raumproduktionen (Seminar BSc Geography, Summer term 2020)
- Humangeographie Aufbau: Geographien der Globalisierung, Stadt und Digitalisierung (Seminar BSc Geography, Winter term 2019/2020)
- Asymmetrien globaler Mobilitäten (Project Seminar BSc Geography, Winter term 2019/2020)
- Humangeographie Aufbau: Raumtheorien, Postkoloniale Geographien, Feministische Geographien (Seminar BSc Geography, Summer term 2019)
Prior teaching at Goethe University Frankfurt
- (Post-)Kolonialismus: Geographische Perspektiven (Seminar BSc Geography, Summer term 2018)
- The Work of Global Production (Reading Course BSc Geography, Winter term 2017/18)
- (Post-)Koloniale Geographien (with Alev Coban, Seminar BSc Geography, Summer term 2017)
- Geographien des Globalen Südens (with Alev Coban, Seminar BSc Geography, Summer term 2016)