Notes on Contributors
Katajun Amirpur
is Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Cologne. Her doctoral thesis and postdoctoral habilitation were on Iranian reformist thinkers. From 2011 to 2018, she served as Deputy Director of the Academy of World Religions at Hamburg University. One of her most recognised publications is Amirpur Katajun, New Thinking in Islam (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2019). Her main research activity is Shiʿi Islam.
Helmut Brückner
is a Geomorphologist. Until 2019, he was Professor for Physical Geography at the University of Cologne. His research foci are coastal geomorphology, geoarchaeology, and geochronology. His recent publications include: Brückner, Helmut et al., “Life Cycle of Estuarine Islands—From the Formation to the Landlocking of Former Islands in the Environs of Miletos and Ephesos in Eastern Asia Minor (Turkey),” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 12 (2017): 876–894. doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.11.024 and; Herda, Alexander et al., “From the Gulf of Latmos to Lake Bafa: On the History, Geoarchaeology, and Palynology of the Lower Maeander Valley at the Foot of the Latmos Mountains,” Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 88.1 (2019): 1–86. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.88.1.0001?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Eckart Ehlers
is Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Bonn and Senior Fellow at its Center for Development Studies (Ger. Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung (ZEF)). His special fields of interest cover the social and economic geography of the Near and Middle East as well as the ecological aspects of global environmental change and interactions between nature and society in the Anthropocene. In these fields he has served in the past as chair of the German National Committee on Global Change Research (NKGCF), as chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) on Global Environmental Change and other national and international scientific organisations like START (System for Analysis, Research and Training) in Washington/DC or the International Foundation for Science (IFS) in Stockholm. His recent publications and editorials include Ehlers, Eckart, Das Anthropozän. Die Erde im Zeitalter des Menschen (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2008) and; Ehlers, Eckart, “Globalization, UNESCO, Urban Morphology and Local Responses,” Urban Morphology 22 (2018): 101–108.
Max Engel
is a geomorphologist. He is head of the Lab of Geomorphology and Geoecology at Heidelberg University and specialises in coastal and dryland geomorphology, geoarchaeology, palaeoenvironmental changes, and coastal hazards. His recent publications include: Boesl, Fabian et al., “Digital Mapping of Coastal Boulders—High-Resolution Data Acquisition to Infer Past and Recent Transport Dynamics,” Sedimentology (2019). doi:10.1111/sed.12578 and; Engel, Max, Fabian Boesl, and Helmut Brückner, “Migration of Barchan Dunes in Qatar—Controls of the Shamal, Teleconnections, Sea-level Changes, and Human Impact,” Geosciences 8 (2018): 240. doi:10.3390/geosciences8070240.
Kerstin Fritzsche
is a political scientist and sustainability researcher. She heads the research area digitalisation at the Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (IZT) in Berlin, Germany. She is specialised in the field of the interdependencies between digital transformation and sustainable development in countries of the Global South. Her recent publications include: Fritzsche, Kerstin, Silke Niehoff, and Grischa Beier, “Industry 4.0 and Climate Change—Exploring the Science-Policy Gap,” Sustainability 10.12 (2018): 4511. http://doi.org/10.3390/su10124511 and; Fritzsche, Kerstin, Stefanie Kunkel, and Marcel Matthess, “Digitalized Economies in Africa. Structural Change in a Dynamic Environment,” IASS Fact Sheet (2020): https://doi.org/10.2312/iass.2020.050.
Ursula Kowanda-Yassin
is a teacher of Religious Education and a specialist in Islamic studies. She is a researcher on Muslims in Europe at Sigmund Freud University, Vienna, specialising in Islamic environmental education. Her recent publications include: Kowanda-Yassin, Ursula, Öko-Dschihad. Der grüne Islam: Beginn einer globalen Umweltbewegung (Salzburg, Wien: Residenz-Verlag, 2018) and; Kowanda-Yassin, Ursula, Mensch und Naturverständnis in den Grundlagen des sunnitischen Islam. Ein Beitrag zum aktuellen Umweltdiskurs (Würzburg: Ergon-Verlag, 2011).
Ephraim Meir
is Professor Emeritus of Modern Jewish Philosophy at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. He specialises in modern Jewish philosophy and interreligious theology. His recent publications include: Meir, Ephraim, Interreligious Theology: Its Value and Mooring in Modern Jewish Philosophy (Berlin, Jerusalem: De Gruyter and Magnes, 2015) and; Meir, Ephraim, Becoming Interreligious. Towards a Dialogical Theology from a Jewish Vantage Point (Münster, New York: Waxmann, 2017).
Rosel Pientka-Hinz
is an Assyriologist. She is Adjunct Professor (Ger. Privatdozentin) of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at the Ruhr-University of Bochum and specialises in the cultural and religious history of the ancient Near East (above all animal symbolism). Her recent publications include: Pientka-Hinz, Rosel, “Making Contact in Mesopotamia: Powerful Kisses, Forbidden Kisses,” in Tabou et transgressions, Actes du colloque organisé par le Collège de France, Paris, les 11–12 avril 2012, ed. Jean-Marie Durand, Michael Guichard, and Thomas Römer, 69–81 (Freiburg, Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2015) and; Pientka-Hinz, Rosel, “Bunte Kühe? Zu den frühesten Farbbezeichnungen im Alten Orient,” in Ancient Near Eastern Studies: The Empirical Dimension of Ancient Near Eastern Studies/Die empirische Dimension altorientalischer Forschungen, ed. Gebhard J. Selz and Klaus Wagensonner, 325–374 (Wien, Berlin: LIT, 2011).
Matthias Schmidt
is Professor of Human Geography and Resource Strategies at the University of Augsburg and specialises in political ecology, human environment geography, development, and transition research. His recent publications include: Schmidt, Matthias and Sebastian Purwins “Simultaneity as a Challenge for Development,” GeoJournal 83 (2018): 1193–1204 and; Pearson, Olivia and Matthias Schmidt, “Repercussions of Institutional Governance Changes on Communication Practices in the Afar National Regional State, Ethiopia,” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 39 (2018): 438–453.
Franz Trieb
works as Project Manager and Scientific Advisor of the International Energy-Water-Nexus Team at the Department of Systems Analysis and Technology Assessment of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart, Germany. He specialises in renewable energy integration for power and seawater desalination. His recent publications include: Trieb, Franz, et al., “Rescuing the Concept of Solar Electricity Transfers from North Africa to Europe,” International Journal of Energy Sector Management 10.3 (2016): 448-473, accessed May 15, 2017. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6220.htm and; Trieb, Franz, Massimo Moser and Jürgen Kern, “Liquid Solar Fuel—Liquid Hydrocarbons from Solar Energy and Biomass” (presented at the conference on “Sustainable Enhancements of Power, Cooling and Water for Hot Climates (SDEWES),” Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 4-8, 2017.
Tobias von Lossow
is a political scientist and Research Fellow in the Sustainability Unit at the Clingendael, Netherlands Institute of International Relations. His research focuses on water conflicts, hydro-politics and water diplomacy in transboundary river basins in the Middle East and Africa. Moreover, he works on the role of water in armed conflicts and fragile post-conflict settings and on climate change impacts on water security. Tobias von Lossow is a lecturer at the Free University Berlin, Consortium Expert of the Planetary Security Initiative (PSI), a member of the Water and Conflict in the Middle East project of Georgetown University, Qatar (2017–2019) and member of the Water Security in the Middle East by EuroMeSCo & IPCRI (2019–2020). His recent publications include: von Lossow, Tobias, “More than Infrastructures: Water Challenges in Iraq” Policy Brief, Clingendael & PSI (2018) and: von Lossow, Tobias, “The Multiple Crisis. Perspectives on Water Scarcity in the Euphrates and Tigris Basin, Orient 58.1 (2017): 45–53.