The various projects in our work group can be assigned to four thematic fields in our research and teaching: Uneven Geographies of Im/Mobility & In/Justice, Ethic Scapes, Sustainability Utopias and Media Geography.

At its core is the geographical examination of questions of social inequalities that are reproduced through spatial constellations, especially in urban spaces, everyday life or spaces of the possible. We deal with utopian as well as real designs for transformation processes and alternatives for securing a future worth living.

RECOMENT

Leibniz ScienceCampus RECOMENT: “Resiliencies: Comparing and Integrating Methodologies, Methods, Narratives, and Theories“

Rethinking resilience – interdisciplinary, integrative, innovative

Resilience has long since become a central concept in science, politics and society. The growing importance of the concept of resilience is accompanied by an increasing diversity of disciplinary approaches – from Biology and Sociology to Cultural Studies and Ecology. Resilience processes can therefore not be understood from a single disciplinary perspective. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches are required.

This is precisely where the Leibniz ScienceCampus RECOMENT (“Resiliencies: Comparing and Integrating Methodologies, Methods, Narratives, and Theories“) comes in: The aim is to analyze resilience phenomena across disciplines without dissolving the diversity of scientific perspectives into a unified theory. By comparing and integrating methods, procedures, narratives and theories, RECOMENT aims to build bridges between disciplines and develop new forms of productive inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration.

RECOMENT understands resilience as a heuristic lens – as an observational perspective to better understand bio-cultural, socio-ecological and socio-historical processes. The central question is: Which resilience concepts prove to be analytically fruitful in which context – and how can different approaches be brought together effectively?

(Further information: https://www.lwc-recoment.de/ )

“NetzWerkBildung Fair Migration”

(Grant from the Mainz Science Foundation)

Knowledge and ethical competence for the use of (AI) technologies in the context of migration and flight

Especially against the backdrop of increasing populist and democracy-threatening movements (see also the statement published by scientific associations on the occasion of the 2025 federal elections “For a political orientation towards facts and the historical commitment to human rights” (link: https://rat-fuer-migration.de/2025/01/31/fuer-eine-politische-orientierung-an-fakten-und-der-historischen-verpflichtung-auf-die-menschenrechte/), a geo-ethical formulation for the humanitarian and thus socially more sustainable and stabilizing design of migration processes in the sense of good governance is currently of great importance.

By focusing on opportunities and risks (especially dehumanization) through the use of technology in migration and refugee management, the participatory project contributes reciprocally to greater transparency and strengthening the agency of important actors through a targeted change of perspective and greater transparency of knowledge and experience.

Using the methodology of iterative network building, the project contributes to the creation of participatory knowledge competence on flight and migration and to the strengthening of democratic capacity. The insights generated from the day-to-day work of both the political-administrative and NGO perspective are synergistically linked to the further development of the intercultural communication tool IncluKIT for employees in the field of initial reception in the refugee situation (see below).

IncluKit

Inclusive intercultural Communication Training Kit for Initial Reception of Migrants

IncluKIT is a training kit aimed at the whole spectrum of volunteers and professionals involved in the initial reception of newly arrived migrants in European countries, focusing on the analysis of mismatched expectations and misunderstandings during this transitional phase.

Built on multiple case studies of critical incidents of professionals and volunteers working in reception of migrants or refugees, IncluKIT transposes typical conflict or challenging situations into case stories that can be easily imagined and playfully explored in order to induce reflexivity and allow all parties involved in the process to develop mutual understanding and increase intersubjectivity. It consists of standalone session materials that guide participants (ideally few of them) with or without a facilitator, through subsequent tasks and assignments finishing with a debriefing checklist.

IncluKIT is the FIT FORTHEM co-creation pilot project of the FORTHEM Lab Diversity & Migration. FORTHEM is an alliance of nine European universities, six of which are involved in IncluKIT: Università degli Studi di Palermo (Italy), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germany), Université de Bourgogne (France), Jyväskylän Yliopisto (Finland), Uniwersytet Opolski (Poland) and Universitat de València (Spain). The two external stakeholders for the project are SIETAR Europa and diversophy®, with the support of SIETAR Switzerland and the SIG Migration.

Contact: inclukit@gmail.com

(Link: https://ws.uni.opole.pl/inclukit/)

We deal with the im//material dimensions, practices and designs of spatial reconfigurations of future designs as well as with questions about their access and exclusion mechanisms. The focus is on visions of social-ecological living environments worth living in the future. A special focus is on sustainability utopias – for example in the contexts of degrowth or resilience – which often emerge in urban transformation processes, but reproduce or conceal existing power asymmetries (e.g. in smart cities or in the concept of neo-natures). To critically reflect on these dynamics, we draw on conceptual approaches from philosophical ethics and the analysis of media productions and narratives of utopias and dystopias. Current projects deal with urban transformations in Muscat (Oman) as well as with processes, practices and spatial futures in the Indian Ocean region (Mauritius) and the Arab Gulf states (Dubai, Doha). Following on from the Geographies of Encounter, we ask which new conceptions of the urban are being negotiated and produced.

In our engagement with im//mobilities, we look in particular at border and migration regimes and ask about their effects on identity, belonging, exclusion and the resulting geographies of (in)visibility. Our focus is on the politicized issue of refugee migration to the EU as well as on long-established labor migration regimes in the Indian Ocean, especially in the Arab Gulf States and the Sultanate of Oman. In addition, we deal with Black Geographies, which analyze the spatial dimensions of Black life realities, as well as with general methodological questions of differentiation and constructions of foreignness.

In the context of planetary responsibility, we examine current understandings of values in dealing with planetary resources and their public negotiations. Our work ties in with debates on moral geographies, critical resource geographies and legal geographies. In conjunction with Legal Geographies, we analyze in particular the everyday practices of environmental responsibility and their influence on jurisprudence, legal regulations and the development of new concepts such as environmental personhood. We also examine socio-ecological issues from an anti-patriarchal perspective, for example in the context of transnational place-making through diasporic activism by women* from Pakistan in Berlin. In particular, we ask questions about visibility, dignity and embodied practices and reflect on methodological and epistemological approaches in the field of migration and media geography research.

Our media geography perspective is interwoven with the other research fields – we understand it both as an object of research and as a methodological approach for our main topics. In various projects, we analyze mediatized landscapes and spaces that are (re-)produced through Film, Photography or sounds and music. The focus is on the (co-)production of media representations and practices. We also deal with theoretical and practical perspectives on creative audiovisual methods, which are also used in our research.
Our media lab offers a wide range of opportunities to develop innovative formats for science communication such as DIY podcasts or (documentary) films. We are also co-editors of the book series Media Geography at Mainzwhich acts as an international publication organ for media geography research.

2026

Poersch, J. M. (2026): The UN Ocean Decade and Its Performative Impact on North Sea Governance: An Extended Event Ethnography. In: Ocean and Society 3. https://doi.org/10.17645/oas.11355

Hummel, P., E. Sommerlad & V. Cummings (2026): Doing Reel Geographies: Situating Responsibilities and the (In)Visibility of Migration through Short Vertical Films. In: Annals of the American Association of Geographers. (Online first)

2025

Sommerlad, E. & P. Hummel (2025): Researching with Film: perspectives on an applied film geography. In: Bauer, L., K. Beurskens, J. Dobrusskin, N. Küttel, J. Miggelbrink, A.-L- Müller & E. Nöthen (eds.): Visualizing Qualitative Geographies: A Handbook. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot: 123-131.

Becklake, S., T. Freytag, G. Rainer, E. Sommerlad & C. Steiner (2025): Tourism is not an island. Retheorizing tourism geography. Geographical Journal 113 (3): 197-205.

Hummel, P. (2025): Our land, our pirekuas. Music as a form of resistance and its appropriations. In: Science & Peace 3: 45-47.

Sommerlad, E. & A. Jansson (2025): From Representation to Entanglement: 40 Years of media geography. In: Scottish Geographical Journal 141, 3-4. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2025.2544917

Poersch, J. M. (2025): Experiencing the North Sea – “Ship-Alongs” as a mobile method. In: Naumann, M. & A. Strüver (eds.): Handbuch Mobile Methoden in der Sozial- und Raumforschung. transcript/utb.: 56-67.

Sommerlad, E. & R. Mauer (2025): Panoramas of the future: film cartographic views of cities in science fiction film and Gulf futurism. In: Ullmaier, J., R. Mauer & C. Wörsdörfer (eds.): Everything in view: Perspectives of an intermedial panorama. Wiesbaden. Springer: 491-535. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-48233-6_17

Sommerlad, E. & P. Hummel (2025): Researching with moving images: perspectives on an applied film geography. In: Bauer, L., K. Beurskens, J. Dobrusskin, N. Küttel, J. Miggelbrink, A.-L- Müller & E. Nöthen (eds.): Visualization of Qualitative Geographies. A handbook . Münster. Westfälisches Dampfboot: 116-124.

Adscheid, T. & Bruns, A. (2025). (Un)Human Urbanity: Black Geographies in the Age of the Planetary. sub/urban Journal for Critical Urban Research, 13 (1), 13-41. https://doi.org/10.36900/suburban.v13i1.996

Adscheid, T. (2025). Who can afford to be human? Struggling for Affordable Housing in East London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 49 (2), 376-392. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13304

2024

Adscheid, T. (2024). The need to escape: Carceral entrapments and fugitive manoeuvres amidst London’s vicious housing circle. Radical Housing Journal, 6 (1), 83-103. http://doi.org/10.54825/HMOL4671

Hummel, P., Sommerlad, E. & Zschocke, J. (2024). Doing Film Geographies with the Video Documentary Approach. VisQual Methodbox. https://visqual.leibniz-ifl-projekte.de/methodbox/2024/03/21/video-documentary/

Lange, B. & Cummings, V. (2024): Spatially differentiating perspectives on post-growth. Geographical Review, 7/8, 4-8.

Poersch, J. M. (2024). The North Sea and the EU’s interregional energy politics – a legal geography analysis. In T. Meyer & F. Weber (Eds.), Energy Geographies: Negotiating the French-German interface (pp. 59-77). Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-69797-5_4

Sommerlad, E.& Reeh, T. (2024):Media tourism in the Hunsrück. Geographical Review, 11, 44-49.

2023

Hummel, P. (2023) Raíces y Brotes – P’urhépechan Music, Politics & Identity [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D74iCH30yU (22.3.2024)

Toni Adscheid

  • M13/M12ED Empirical work on current research questions – Thinking from the margins: Geographies of urban marginality in Mainz

Veronika Cummings:

  • Lecture – Concepts and approaches of globalization geography
  • Lecture – Theories of human geography
  • M10-MA Research Skills (Proposal Master thesis)
  • M4-MA Reading Course
  • M11b/M11ED GP: Field trip with preparatory seminar “Oman”

André Jansson

  • M5/7-MA Current Debates on Globalization, Media & Culture “Critical approaches to digital logistics”

Elisabeth Sommerlad:

  • M3 MA Project Seminar – Media Geography
  • M5/7-MA Current Debates on Globalization, Media & Culture “Critical approaches to digital logistics”

Elisabeth Späth

  • M6/M9ED Field internship: Method workshop “Digitization of the urban”

Paul Hummel:

  • M2 Practice class: Human Geography II (Economic Geography)

Information about the respective degree programs can be found on the website of the Student Advising Office of the Geography department.

Toni Adscheid:

  • M2 Practice class: Human Geography I (Social Geographical Urban Research)
  • M11b/M11ED GP: Field trip with preparatory seminar *Along the East German border*

Veronika Cummings:

  • M1-MA Advanced Seminar: Globalization Geography
  • M1-MA Seminar: Academic Skills (I)
  • M4-MA Colloquium (I)
  • M4-MA Reading Course (I)
  • M2 Lecture: Introduction to Human Geography I (Social Geographical Urban Research)

Elisabeth Sommerlad:

  • M3-MA Advanced Seminar: Theoretical approaches to Media Geography
  • M2 Practice class: Human Geography I (Social Geographical Urban Research)
  • M3ED field trip in Germany with preparatory seminar in Hunsrück

Information about the respective degree programs can be found on the website of the Student Advising Office of the Geography department.

Toni Adscheid:

  • Field internship – Powerful stories (Method workshop E)
  • Practical application class – HGI Economic Geography (Courses E & F)

Veronika Cummings:

  • Lecture – Concepts and approaches of globalization geography
  • Lecture – Theories of human geography
  • Seminar – Concepts and Debates: “Visionary Geographies: Utopias of Sustainability”
  • M10-MA Research Skills (Proposal Master thesis)
  • M4-MA Reading Course

Paul Hummel:

  • Field trip with preparatory seminar: “Georgia”

Judith Maria Poersch:

  • Seminar – Concepts and Debates: “Legal Geographies: Rights of Nature”
  • Practical application class – HGI Economic Geography (Courses G & H)

 

Elisabeth Sommerlad:

  • MA Seminar – Human Geography in Practice: “Audiovisual Essay & Mental Mapping of Cinematic Urban Utopias” (in cooperation with Dr. Roman Mauer, Film Studies; funded as an innovative teaching project by the GLK) | Public presentation of the video essays: July 17, 2025, N3 (Muschel)
  • MA Project Seminar – Media Geography

IncluKIT – Inclusive Intercultural Communication Training Kit for Initial Reception of MigrantsThe FORTHEM Lab “Diversity and Migration” launched its milestone: IncluKIT is available now!

Free Download of all kits and further information here

Further translations (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish… are available soon)

IncluKIT is a training kit aimed at the whole spectrum of volunteers and professionals involved in the initial reception of newly arrived migrants in European countries, focusing on the analysis of mismatched expectations and misunderstandings during this transitional phase.

The kit is designed for all the people working with migrants, based on an in-depth study of their respective needs. It makes use of recent academic research on interculturality to go beyond the limits of traditional tools for raising awareness of cultural differences. IncluKIT provides a practical application of critical theoretical approaches, based on varied and innovative methodologies, in a user-friendly format. The training kit is accessible free of charge and can be used in various contexts (state-sponsored institutions, NGOs, educational/academic communities, private businesses) and adapted to specific local realities.

IncluKIT is the FIT FORTHEM co-creation pilot project of the FORTHEM Lab Diversity & Migration. FORTHEM is an alliance of nine European universities, six of which are involved in IncluKIT: Università degli Studi di Palermo (Italy), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Germany), Université de Bourgogne (France), Jyväskylän Yliopisto (Finland), Uniwersytet Opolski (Poland) and Universitat de València (Spain). The two external stakeholders for the project are SIETAR Europa and diversophy®, with the support of SIETAR Switzerland and the SIG Migration.

Contact: inclukit@gmail.com

Past Activities:

SUMMER SCHOOL (Blended Intensive Program) in Palermo/ Sicily:“Migrants and cities: Intersectional studies on the mutual interaction between new citizens and urban space”

June 10 – June 14, 2024, Università degli Studi di Palermo (Palermo, Italy)

Guest Lecturers: Veronika Cummings & Paul Hummel

Further Information hereProgramme: Migrants and Cities BIP Program

WE NEED TO TALK – Online panel discussion on anti-discrimination strategies at the FORTHEM partner universities25.01.2023 at 4pm, CET.

For the flyer and all information click here:We Need To Talk_25.01.2023

   

FORTHEM: Funded by the European Union & the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101017248 ( FIT FORTHEM).

In June 2019, the European Commission selected a total of 17 European higher education networks to rethink the European Higher Education Area and fill it with life. One of these networks is the FORTHEM Alliance under the leadership of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU).

We are pleased to announce the approval of the second funding period of the FORTHEM Alliance from 2022-2026. Veronika Cummings has taken over the coordination of the “Diversity and Migration” lab at university level from September 2022, following on from the successful lab coordination of Gerhard Kruip (Social Ethics, JGU Mainz) during the first funding period. In addition, Veronika Cummings substitutes JGU as a Board Member in the Co-Creation Mission.

Further information on the activities of the lab can be found here: Link to the report

The aim of FORTHEM is to improve the communication and cooperation between students and teaching staff, researchers and scientific support staff within the alliance.

The Alliance’s international partner institutions are:

  • Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany
  • Université de Bourgogne in France
  • Uniwersytet Opolski in Poland
  • Universitat de València in Spain
  • Università degli Studi di Palermo in Italy
  • Latvijas Universitāte in Latvia
  • Jyväskylän yliopisto in Finland
  • Universitetet i Agder in Norway
  • Universitatea Lucian Blaga din Sibiu in Romania

In addition, cooperation with non-university partners at the individual locations is planned.

  • The Lab pursues an inclusive approach and would like to encourage participation. We welcome ideas, contributions to the discussions or initiatives in the thematic field of “Diversity and Migration”!