Dr Susanne Boerner PhD

Dr Susanne Boerner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Assistant Professor in Human Geography

Contact details

Email
s.borner@bham.ac.uk
Twitter

Dr Susanne Börner is Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the ϳԹ. Her research focuses on youth everyday agency, emotions and urban well-being in the context of interconnected urban crises. She also researches on the interconnections of climate change and mental health as well as decolonial perspectives on human-nature relations, individual and planetary healing and ancestral wisdom. Susanne is particularly interested in the experiences of those growing up and living ‘at the margins’, such as children and young people as well as multi-generational contexts of knowledge generation. Susanne has a particular interest in participatory knowledge co-production. Her Marie Curie Global Fellowship (2019-2023) explored how young people in Brazil can live better with and develop long-term (emotional) resilience in contexts of resource scarcity and disaster risk. As theme lead for the research theme “ Sustainable, Liveable and Resilient Cities” at the Centre for Urban Wellbeing she also aims to generate pathways for integrating youth knowledge into public policies for a healthy urban development. Here, she aims to learn from ϳԹ-based knowledges, lived experiences, knowings, beings, and everyday practices to generate positive change.

Susanne is a member of the , conference officer for the RGS-IBG research group  and an ordinary member of the RGS-IBG 

Qualifications

  • PhD (Dr. phil, distinction magna cum laude), Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, Department of Political Sciences / Institute of Social Sciences, Germany. Joint supervision with the University of Applied Health Sciences, Department of Community Health, Bochum, Germany, 2017.
  • M.Sc. Technology and Resources Management in the Tropics and Subtropics, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (now: Technical University of Cologne), Germany, and M.Sc. Ciencias Ambientales (Environmental Sciences), Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí (UASLP), Mexico, 2013.
  • M.A. International Relations and International Organization, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands, 2009.
  • B.A. European Studies (Hon.), Maastricht University, the Netherlands, 2008

Teaching

  • Module lead for the module Field Research Skills for Human Geography and Planning/ Physical Geography and Environmental Sciences (year 2) 
  • Dissertation Labs for Human Geography and Planning (year 2) 
  • Fieldcourse Rotterdam (year 1, Human Geography) 

Postgraduate supervision

climate change and mental health, ancestral wisdom, decolonising human-nature relations, urban wellbeing, nature-based spirituality, youth agency, emotional resilience, disaster risk, climate change adaptation, participatory research for co-production

Research

Contact details

Email
s.borner@bham.ac.uk
Twitter

Dr Susanne Börner is Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the ϳԹ. Her research focuses on youth everyday agency, emotions and urban well-being in the context of interconnected urban crises. She also researches on the interconnections of climate change and mental health as well as decolonial perspectives on human-nature relations, individual and planetary healing and ancestral wisdom. Susanne is particularly interested in the experiences of those growing up and living ‘at the margins’, such as children and young people as well as multi-generational contexts of knowledge generation. Susanne has a particular interest in participatory knowledge co-production. Her Marie Curie Global Fellowship (2019-2023) explored how young people in Brazil can live better with and develop long-term (emotional) resilience in contexts of resource scarcity and disaster risk. As theme lead for the research theme “ Sustainable, Liveable and Resilient Cities” at the Centre for Urban Wellbeing she also aims to generate pathways for integrating youth knowledge into public policies for a healthy urban development. Here, she aims to learn from ϳԹ-based knowledges, lived experiences, knowings, beings, and everyday practices to generate positive change.

Susanne is founder of Shamanic Healing and Counselling in Birmingham. She is also a member of the , conference officer for the RGS-IBG research group and an ordinary member of the RGS-IBG

Other activities

  • Project management including backstopping missions for KfW (Drought Resilience, Djibouti) and GIZ (Agroforestry, Timor Leste), 2018.
  • Proposal writer. Employment creation for marginalized groups. Agroforesty project. Timor Leste. GIZ funded, 2018-2019.
  • Proposal writer. Regional funds for drought resilience. Djibouti. KfW funded, 2018-2019.
  • Proposal writer and project manager. Programme for the protection and sustainable use of natural resources. Madagascar. GIZ funded, 2017-2018.
  • Proposal writer. Soil Conservation and Rehabilitation (Phase II). GIZ funded, 2018.
  • Consultant, Department for Rural Development and Environment, GOPA Consultants, Bad Homburg, 2016-2019.
  • Trainer for Business English, German as a foreign language, and intercultural training for young women with a migration background, Association for Vocational Training (VbFF), 2013-2016.
  • Lecturer for the Undergraduate Seminar “Qualitative Content Analysis”, including curriculum development and implementation, Department of Community Health, University of Health Sciences (HSG), Bochum, Germany, 2016.
  • Lecturer for the Undergraduate Seminar “Environmental Justice”, including curriculum development and implementation, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, 2016.
  • Supervision of a bachelor thesis on Green Economy, Faculty of Political Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 2016.
  • Member of the expert committee on environmental justice, German Environmental Action (Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V.), 2014-2015.
  • Intern in the Climate Change Task Force, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, 2011.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Koeckler, H, Shrestha, R, Aslam, AB, Berger, T, Börner, S, Cheung, C, Fabian, C, Shankavaram, H, Shrestha, R, Shrestha, S & Simon, D 2024, '', Cities & Health.

Auerbach, J, Muñoz, S, Affiah, U, Barrera de la Torre, G, Börner, S, Cho, H, Cofield, R, Di Enno, CM, Grady-Lovelace, G, Klassen, S, Limeberry, V, Morse, A, Natarajan, L & Walsh, E 2023, '', Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 7, 1170856.

Börner, S 2023, '', International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 89, 103636.

Börner, S, Kraftl, P & Giatti, LL 2023, '', Qualitative Research.

Tayebi, N, van Köppen, M, Plunger, P, Börner, S & Banks, S 2023, '', Ethics and Social Welfare.

Auerbach, J, Muñoz, S, Walsh, E, Affiah, U, Barrera de la Torre, G, Börner, S, Cho, H, Cofield, R, Di Enno, CM, Grady-Lovelace, G, Klassen, S, Limeberry, V, Morse, A & Natarajan, L 2022, '', Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 6, 916384.

Auerbach, J, Muñoz, S, Affiah, U, Barrera de la Torre, G, Börner, S, Cho, H, Cofield, R, Di Enno, CM, Grady-Lovelace, G, Klassen, S, Limeberry, V, Morse, A, Natarajan, L & Walsh, E 2022, '', Frontiers, vol. 6, 762065.

Börner, S, Kraftl, P & Giatti, LL 2021, '', Children's Geographies, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 275-283.

Chapter

Benites Lazaro, LL, Lauda-Rodriguez, ZL, Börner, S, Lampis, A & Giatti, LL 2023, . in Climate Justice in the Majority World: Vulnerability, Resistance, and Diverse Knowledges. 1 edn, Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research, Routledge.

Börner, S, Kraftl, P & Giatti, LL 2023, in B Percy-Smith, NP Thomas, C O'Kane & A Twum-Danso Imoh (eds), Handbook of Children and Young People’s Participation: Conversations for Transformational Change. 2 edn, Routledge, London.

Giatti, LL, Börner, S & Carolina, MDC 2022, . in LL Benites Lazaro, LL Giatti, LS Valente de Macedo & JA Puppim de Oliveira (eds), Water-energy-food nexus and climate change in cities: Sustainable Development Goals Series. 1 edn, Sustainable Development Goals Series, Springer, Cham, pp. 203-215.

Commissioned report

Acton, J, Anderson, P, Andres, L, Angus, M, Amor, P, Arrowsmith, J (ed.), Asmelash, H, Bartington, S (ed.), Bengtsson, F, Bhullar, L, Bloss, W, Bonet, B, Börner, S, O Bonsu, N, Bryson, JR, Burns, V, Burrows, A, Calvert, C, Cassidy, N, Cavoski, A, Chadyiwa, M, Chapman, H, Chapman, L, Cockram, M, Degendardt, L, Dickinson, D, Ding, Y, Dobrzynski, D, Dolo, M, Dora, J, Ercolani, M, Ersoy, A, Farag, H, Ferranti, E, Fisher, R, Freer, M, Goldmann, N, Goode, CE, Greenham, S, Gulati, S, Hadfield-Hill, S, Harper, G, Hegerl, G, Hillmansen, S, Holmes, J, Huang, JJ, Huser, C, Jackson, R, Jaroszweski, D, Jefferson, I, Johnson, J, Kaewunruen, S, Kelly-Akinnuoye, F, Kettles, G, Kraftl, P, Krause, S, Leckebusch, GC, Lee, R, Lockwood, B (ed.), Lohse, J, Luna Diez, E, Lynch, I (ed.), MacKenzie, R, Maddison, D, Makepeace, J, Mann, V, Marino, R, Mavronicola, N, McDonald, M, McGowan, K (ed.), Metje, N, Ng, K, Nicol, J, O'Sullivan, C, Phalkey, N, Prestwood, E, Pyatt, N, Quinn, A, Radcliffe, J (ed.), Ravi, M, Reardon, L, Reeder, T, O’Regan, P, Remedios, L, Roberts, J, Rogers, C, Rungskunroch, P, van Schaik, W, Swan, J (ed.), Thomson, I, Toft, H (ed.), Tong, J, Botello Villagrana, F, Walton, A, Wason, C (ed.), Weir, C, Wood, R & Zhong, J 2021, . ϳԹ.

Other contribution

Börner, S 2021, . Latin American Geographies (LAG)-UK Blog. <>

Dutta, S, Börner, S & Ferranti, E 2021, . PortPostdoc Escape the Routine - a PERCAT online podcast series, ϳԹ. <>

Hafferty, C, Montuori, B, Börner, S, Meziant, K, Dunwoodie Stirton, F & Wingfield, T 2021, . Participatory Geographies Research Group. <>