Teaching Spotlight
Power, Knowledge & the Rio Conventions is a seminar that examines how global sustainability governance is shaped by knowledge and power. The course introduces the three Rio Conventions—the UNFCCC, CBD, and UNCCD—tracing their historical development, legal foundations, and the different ways they govern climate change, biodiversity, and land degradation.
A core focus lies on their science-policy interfaces (IPCC, IPBES, and the UNCCD SPI). Students explore how these bodies produce, validate, and mobilise knowledge, and how their assessments influence international politics. By contrasting linear models of science advice with co-production approaches informed by critical theory, the seminar highlights how expertise becomes authoritative—and whose knowledge remains marginalised. Further the course blends conceptual discussions with applied learning. Through a simulation of COP negotiations and an analysis of recent COP outcomes, students gain hands-on insight into climate diplomacy and the role of scientific assessments in global negotiations.
Overall, the seminar encourages students to question dominant governance models and to imagine more inclusive and just futures for sustainability governance across the Rio Conventions.
Further Teaching
- 2024/25 Co-teaching Masters Course ‘Development Sociology’ together with Dr. Ramona Hägele and Prof. Dr. Hornidge, Sociology Department of the University of Bonn
Guest Lectures
- 12/2025: Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, Entre Pesquisa e Diplomacia Climática: Perspectivas da COP30
- 05/2025: Center for Development and Environment (CDE) of the University of Bern: Legitimate Science Policy Interfaces in Sustainability Governance
- 12/2023: Ahmedadabad University: Legitimate Urban Climate Action Plans: The Case of Ahmedabad
- 09/2023: University of São Paulo: Legitimate Urban Climate Action Plans: The Case of São Paulo
- 04/2023: University of Ghana: Legitimate Urban Climate Action Plans: The Case of Accra
- 07/2022: Lecture on Human and Sustainable Development Master in Land use systems in the tropics and subtropics at the University of Bonn.
- 06/2022: Public Climate School of Students for Future Bonn. Interactive Workshop on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) during the
- University of Ghana (2023), Universidade de São Paulo (2023), CDE Bern (2025), University of Bonn (2022).
Supervision Spotlight
Power and Knowledge in Urban Climate Action
This project of Eric Sebastian Kalversberg supervised by Wendy Chavez and me advances Gaventa’s (2006) power cube framework by adding an epistemic dimension. It investigates how knowledge and power intersect in urban climate policymaking, building directly on insights from my dissertation field work on urban climate action, focusing on how knowledge and power interact in cities climate action plans.
A poster preprint of the project can be found here.
Thesis supervision
- University of Bonn – MA thesis on Leadership in the Global Stocktake (GST) (to be completed 2026).
- University of Freiburg – BA thesis on Climate Finance and the GST (submitted 2025).
- Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences – MA thesis on IPCC Expert Review and Legitimacy (completed 2024).
University of Bonn – BA thesis on City Networks in Urban Climate Governance (completed 2024).