Dr. des. Lena Schlegel

Lena Schlegel holds a PhD in sociology from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. In her dissertation, which was awarded the distinction summa cum laude and the Munich Sustainability Award, she explored nature–society transformations in the context of wildfires in Australia. In particular, she analyzed how “conflicts of care” for other species and the environment were negotiated in the aftermath of the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires in Victoria. Her PhD was funded by a doctoral scholarship from the Heinrich Böll Foundation and conducted as part of the RCC’s interdisciplinary doctoral programme Environment and Society and a visiting fellowship at the University of Melbourne in 2022–23.

Lena is interested in how environmental crises challenge contemporary societies and how particular forms of social organisation, in turn, amplify environmental predicaments, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and health. Conceptually, she draws on relational theories, in particular feminist new materialisms and care. She is interested in the affective dimensions of environmental loss and change, multispecies approaches to health and justice, and the sensory aspects of environmental knowledge production. Her empirical research experience combines traditional forms of qualitative inquiry including interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, with more experimental modalities such as multispecies ethnography, and creative methods such as poetry and photography.

Lena has worked on research projects investigating disaster management and data science at the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW), Tübingen, the Chair for Cultural Geography and Society-Environment Research at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen–Nuremberg (FAU), and the European University Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH). Her teaching portfolio covers topics from nature–society relations over global health and environmental governance to qualitative research methods and environmental emotions. She has taught seminars, workshops, and field classes in sociology, political science, and geography at both BA and MA levels.

Publications:

• with Nathaniel Otjen, Shannon Lambert, Hannah Della Bosca, and Blanche Verlie. “Multispecies Grief in the Wake of Megafires.” Edge Effects, 6 June 2023, https://edgeeffects.net/multispecies-grief-megafires/.
• “Photography as an ‘Art of Noticing’ Climate Loss in More-than-Human Relationships of Care.” SEI Magazine, no. 7 (2022–23): 16–21. https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/sydney-environment-institute/publications/reports/usyd_sei-magazine_mar-2023.pdf.
• “Another World Was Possible: How Sociological Imagination Could Have Helped Solve the Climate Crisis.” In The 2051 Munich Climate Conference: Future Visions of Climate Change, edited by Benno Heisel, Theresa Spielman, Andreas Wehrl, and Christina Wehrl, 18–25. Transcript Verlag, 2023. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839463840-004.
• “Between Climates of Fear and Blind Optimism: The Affective Role of Emotions for Climate (In)Action.” Geographica Helvetica 77, no. 4 (2022): 421–31. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-77-421-2022.
• with Leonie N. Bossert. “Anthropozentrismus (in) der Krise: Warum Probleme nicht mit der Denkweise gelöst werden können, die sie auch hervorgerufen hat [Anthropocentrism in Crisis: Why Problems Cannot Be Solved with the Same Mindset That Created Them].” GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 31, no. 1 (2022): 14–18. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.31.1.5.
• with Leonie N. Bossert. “Mit Umweltethik gegen Pandemien: Warum Tierrechte und Naturschutz auch den Menschen nutzen [Environmental Ethics on Pandemics: Why Even Humans Can Benefit from Animal Rights and Nature Conservation].” GAIA: Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 30, no. 2 (2021): 77–81. https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.30.2.4.