Who we are

Germany

Giessen team

Michael Knipper

The coordinator of SMAPL in Germany is Professor Michael Knipper from the University of Giessen. A physician, medical historian, and anthropologist, he completed his studies in Germany (University of Bonn) and Spain (University of Oviedo). Since the 1990s, he has worked on traditional medicine and intercultural health in Ecuador. In Germany, his research focuses on the social, cultural, legal, and political determinants of migrant health. He leads an interdisciplinary migration and human rights program at the University of Giessen. He has consulted for organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Organization for Migration, and Doctors of the World, among others. He was a member of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health (2018) and currently coordinates the Latin American Regional Hub of Lancet Migration.

Hannah Bernstein

Hannah Bernstein holds a B.A. in Social Sciences, having studied in Marburg and Jerusalem, and specializing in Conflict and Gender Studies. She recently completed her Masters in Educational Sciences. Her Master’s thesis is at the intersection of health and city planning. Using a socio-spatial analysis, she analyzed the social determinants of health in different districts of the city of Marburg to gain a deeper understanding of possible locations for a future community-based health center.
Hannah has been working in the SMAPL team in Giessen since March 2023. She is also working in a local community center implementing health networks. As part of her political activism, she co-founded a feminist magazine and is involved in the establishment of a solidarity health center in Marburg.

Sophie Rothenbücher

Sophie is a bachelor’s student of International Health Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences in Fulda, Germany, with an interest in health inequalities and global health research. Previously, she worked as a student assistant for a professor, assisting with preparations for her teaching in Global Health. Currently, she supports the SMAPL team Giessen in conducting and transcribing interviews. She is also a tutor for statistics at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. Sophie is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in International Health Sciences at Fulda University of Applied Sciences and is interested in health inequality and global health research. She previously worked as a student assistant for a professor, helping with the preparation of Global Health courses. Currently, she supports the SMAPL team in Giessen by conducting and transcribing interviews. Additionally, she serves as a tutor for statistics at Fulda University.

Theresa Martens

Theresa Martens is an urban geographer currently pursuing a PhD at the Institute for Critical Urban Studies at the University of Münster. With a passion for comprehending the relationships between people and their urban environment, Theresa’s research focuses on the intersection of urban spaces, social justice, and community health. Beyond their academic involvement, Theresa advocates for community empowerment and organization. Over the past few years, they have collaborated closely with grassroots organizations and urban initiatives in Berlin, particularly in the domains of social justice and feminism. In their dissertation, Theresa explores the embodiment of power dynamics in urban settings. They investigate the spatial emergence and unequal distribution of health and illness. To accomplish this, they employ participatory techniques from community health research. Theresa collaborates closely with local communities, politicians, and administrative bodies, emphasizing the exploration of how scientifically generated knowledge can effectively address and reduce local health disparities.

Bochum team

Christiane Falge

Falge, Christiane, is Professor of Health and Diversity at the University for Applied Sciences of Health in Bochum. Her work and research focuses on migration, community health and health inequalities. As a medical anthropologist, she pursues a post-migrant, collaborative approach and in this context in 2016 founded the City Lab Bochum as a place of decolonizing knowledge production and community empowerment. Here she developed the Community Researcher approach, whose aim is to produce new, intervention-coupled knowledge and to develop and implement culturally sensitive interventions in co-design with communities. In 2017, the City Lab was recognized by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia as exemplary for the further development of the North Rhine-Westphalian health care system and was commended in the 2021 prize for social commitment awarded by the German Rectors Conference (HRK). The book Community Health (2022) which she published together with her colleagues at the Department of Community Health Bochum develops a first German perspective on Community Health. In the SMAPL project, she looks at practices of local NGOs and government institutions in the area during the COVID-19 pandemic from a community and a stakeholder perspective. Besides, it looks at community-based care networks during the pandemic in the absence of government and NGOs support structures.

Iris Dzudzek

Iris Dzudzek is a Professor in Critical Urban Geography at the University of Münster in Germany. She is interested in how geographies of power and knowledge shape cities, health, and governance. In her work, she examines “embodied urban inequalities” along urban health centers in a global comparative perspective as places where illness is not only experienced but where health is politically renegotiated. She is especially interested in what human geography can learn from approaches from the Global South. In her DFG-funded research on “Worlding Medicine” (DFG project no. 392750976, duration until 04/2022), Iris Dzudzek analyzed the circulation of practices, policies, and knowledge systems. Her research emphasizes, among other things, the need to develop health promotion in cooperation with local people and their specific backgrounds and attitudes. She is a founding member of the research network “Bios – Technologies – Health” and spokesperson of “StadtLaborMünster” a center for participatory socio-ecological research at the University of Münster. She has published on urban health equity, the social-environmental construction of COVID-19, and health in the post-pandemic city. For her work on the governmentalities and power effects of the globally circulating creative policy script, she was awarded the prize for the best PhD thesis in German Human Geography. In 2018, she was awarded the first prize for excellent teaching by Goethe University Frankfurt.

Laura Siebert

Laura Siebert is a Master’s student in Human Geography at the University of Münster and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography and Social Anthropology. Her research interests cover the intersections between the city, health and care. For her Master’s thesis, she conducted a collaborative research with community researchers in Bochum as part of the SMAPL project. In this context, she explored the role of the local community as a crucial infrastructure for coping with the pandemic.

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