Doctoral Candidates
Scientists from various disciplines and universities are currently working on their doctoral theses in the field of Global Environmental History and Environmental Humanities under the supervision of Prof. Simone M. Müller.
Simone M. Müller is also Speaker of the International Doctoral Program Re-Thinking Environment. The Environmental Humanities and the Ecological Transformation of Society, funded by the Bavarian Elite Network.
International Doctorate Program "Rethinking Environment" (IDK)
The second funding phase of the International Doctoral Program Re-Thinking Environment begins on October 1, 2025. The call for proposals with deadline January 31, 2025 can be found here:
Call for Proposals IDK 2025 12 doctoral positions - german
Doctoral Candidates
Regina Bichler, MS
Ph.D. student at the Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich
studied Chemistry, Biochemistry and Japanese studies in Munich, Pavia and Osaka and is part of the DFG Emmy Noether research group “Hazardous Travels. Ghost Acres and the Global Waste Economy”.
In her PhD research "The “Zero Waste Cities“ Munich and Kamikatsu: waste prevention, recycling and the integration of technological innovations to establish sustainable waste practices", she analyzes social practices related to consumption and waste in Munich, Kamikatsu, and Kyoto.
E-Mail: regina.bichler@campus.lmu.de
Livia Cahn, MA
Ph.D. student at the Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich
trained in anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and at the EHESS in Paris and is part of the international doctorate program, Rethinking Environment.
Her research work titled „Digging into Core Collections: Underground Environments” is an ethnographic inquiry into how two historical collections of drill core samples are written into contemporary climate discourses related to the underground. You can read more about it here.
E-Mail: livia.cahn@rcc.lmu.de
Caroline Meier, MA
Ph.D. student at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE)
studied Sports Management and Communication (B.A., M.Sc.) at the German Sport University Cologne, and International Relations (M.A.) at Leiden University and is part of the graduate program at the Biosphere Reserves Institute at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development.
In her doctoral project "UNESCO retold - a Latin American perspective on Ecology and Economy", she is investigating the role of Latin American delegates in the founding phase of UNESCO with regard to the importance of nature and the environment.
E-Mail: Caroline.Meier@hnee.de
Danielle Schmitz, MA
Ph.D. student at the Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich
studied economics with courses specialised in global change ecology and energy. She completed her BA in Economics from Calgary, Canada, before moving to Bayreuth, Germany, to complete her MA in Philosophy & Economics.
Her Ph.D. thesis "How Economists “See” the Environment: Textual Framing and Research Bias in Current Economic Research on the Environment, 2016-today" combines economics and ecology to study research framing in economic studies of the environment. Read more.
E-Mail: d.schmitz@campus.lmu.de
Sven Seelinger, MA
Doctoral candidate at the University of Augsburg
studied history at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg and holds a master's degree in History. He then worked as a research assistant at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and is now a member of the International Doctoral Program: Rethinking Environment of the Environmental Science Center ((WZU) at the University of Augsburg.
His doctoral thesis “Pasture, Border, and Battlefield. A Global Object-Ecology of Barbed Wire (1874-1989)” focuses on barbed wire as a link between human and nonhuman-centered segments of historiography. As an iron thread, it demonstrates the relationships between mobility and immobility, violence and deterrence regarding their role in transforming the animate world. You can find more on the topic
here.
E-Mail: sven.seelinger@uni-a.de