Past Research
Discover projects that have shaped the RCC’s journey.
The aim of this project is to support the permanent institutionalization of the Environmental Humanities (EH) at LMU. It receives funding from the Volkswagen Foundation.
The Rachel Carson Center is one of six partners of the Joint Center for Advanced Studies “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China,” a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
“Textile Waste in Emerging Economies” is the project of Humboldt Fellow Anwesha Borthakur. She worked on the project between April 2024 and November 2025.
“EmpowerUs: Socio-economic empowerment of coastal communities” is a research and innovation action funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe program. EmpowerUs will develop an adaptive transformation mechanism via a network of six Transition Coastal Labs across all EU coastal regions to address the myriad of challenges that coastal communities face.
“Environing Infrastructure: Communities, Ecologies, and China’s ‘Green’ Development in Contemporary Southeast Asia” is a five-year research project (2020–25) funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
“OFFSHORE” focuses on the cultural imagination of energy and energy production around the North Sea through the analysis of literary texts and visual media from the UK and Scandinavia. The project is funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
“Corridor Talk: Conservation Humanities and the Future of Europe's National Parks“ examines humanistic aspects of biodiversity loss. The project is jointly funded by the DFG and AHRC.
For over two decades ending in 1987, the extension of Frankfurt Airport through the construction of a new runway (Startbahn 18 West) was accompanied by vocal protests. This study aims to explain why the runway extension attracted such long-lasting controversy and protest.
NUCLEARDECOM is funded by the EU Marie Skłodowska Curie Action Program and proposes a comparative, interdisciplinary approach to the current discussions around nuclear decommissioning.
“Cool Infrastructures: Life with Heat in the Off-Grid City” is a three-year UK Global Challenges Research Fund project. It examines the everyday strategies through which people in India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Cameroon manage exposure to heat when they have limited access to power, water, and other services.
The DFG Emmy-Noether Research Group “Hazardous Travels: Ghost Acres and the Global Waste Economy” investigates structures and dynamics of hazardous waste trade since the 1970s.
“The Marine Environmental Awareness” investigates how concepts of the environment have been formed by ocean sciences, especially marine biology during the 19th and 20th centuries. The project is funded by the DFG.
The Rachel Carson Center hosts a Kolleg-Project funded by the Federal Ministery of Research and Education (Käte Hamburger Kolleg funding). Its thematic focus is on “Transformations in Environment and Society.”
The Rachel Carson Center is participating in RECOMS, Resourceful and Resilient Communities, a Marie Skłodowska Curie (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) funded by the European Commission.
"COVID-19 Vulnerability Assessment and Community Engagement" is a research project that aims to identify and process lasting responses to the needs of populations in Munich that are most vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Urban Environments Initiative, coordinated by LMU and TUM, and based at the Rachel Carson Center, brings together researchers working on urban environmental issues from various international institutions.
CHEERS (Cultural HEritagE. Risks and Securing activities) is a European project concerning the protection of cultural heritage exposed to environmental risks (natural disasters, climate change, etc.).
The D-A-CH project “Issues with Europe—A Network Analysis of the German-speaking Alpine Conservation Movement (1975–2005)” investigates the complex negotiation processes in European politics by analyzing European transport policy in the Alps.
Environmental Humanities for a Concerned Europe (ENHANCE) is a Marie Curie European Innovative Training Network (ITN) providing multidisciplinary doctoral training in Environmental Humanities.
This project explores the implications of the Anthropocene as a scientific concept and normative category.
This cooperative project between Universidad Nacional del Litoral in Santa Fe, Argentina, and the RCC promotes transatlantic dialogue on the rights of nature.
The Global Environments Summer Academy (GESA) is a collaboration between the RCC and the Global Diversity Foundation.
With the LMU Munich Center for Advanced Studies (CAS), the RCC launched a new research cluster in 2013: “Waste in Environment and Society.”
The project looks at the historical intersections between environmental change and migration, in particular past climate-induced movements of people.
Environment and Memory is a concept that draws strongly on the tradition of critical history pursuant to Pierre Nora’s lieux de mémoire.
Leading up to the Rio+20 Summit, these lectures presented multifaceted research on sustainability to inspire citizens to participate in bringing about social change.
This project integrated researchers from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Great Britain to contribute to our understanding of environmental knowledge.