In August 2026, Master’s students from Bonn and Nairobi conducted a two-week field school in the Mount Kenya region to investigate current dynamics of land markets and their social and environmental impacts. Working in mixed research groups, they explored topics ranging from water availability and land prices to urban expansion, land investments and the consequences for local smallholder communities. 

Julia Klumparendt is being honoured for her outstanding commitment to teaching and studies at the Institute of Geography. During the University of Bonn's University Festival on 11 July 2026, a total of 14 lecturers were honoured with the University's Teaching Awards by the Vice-Rector for Studies, Teaching and Higher Education Development, Prof. Dr. Klaus Sandmann, together with his colleagues from the Rectorate. The winners were chosen by the students themselves, based on their teaching evaluations and on nominations submitted by the faculties. Congratulations! 

Ikram Zangana successfully defended his dissertation "From Efficient Geomorphological Mapping to Semi-Automated Landslide Detection." The dissertation was supervised by Prof. Dr. Lothar Schrott (University of Bonn) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jan-Christoph Otto (University of Salzburg). Congratulations!

Prof. Dr. Klaus Fehn passed away on 28 June 2026, shortly after his 90th birthday. He was born in Munich on 14 March 1936. Although he was never a member of the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn, he maintained close ties to the institute in many respects and had a lasting influence on its development. 

As part of the ERASMUS+ Worldwide programme, the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn welcomed several guest lecturers from Sokoine University and Mzumbe University in Tanzania in May and June 2026. The visitors contributed to teaching activities at both undergraduate and graduate level on topics including critical geography, water and natural resource management, rural development, and decolonial approaches to knowledge production. The visits fostered intensive academic exchange and further strengthened the existing partnerships in teaching and research.

The paper “Reframing disciplinary memory” documents the participatory process of critically addressing colonial continuities at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn. At its core is the question of how institutional memory culture can be renegotiated in the context of decolonization.

As part of the Co-HYDIM-SA project, Prof. Dr. Mariele Evers and Dr. Pınar Pamukçu Albers conducted participatory stakeholder workshops in Namibia and Angola in April 2026. Together with local stakeholders, the workshops addressed flood and drought risks in the Cuvelai–Cunene River Basins and explored requirements for a hydro-meteorological early warning and information system. The workshops represent an important contribution to the development of climate-resilient strategies for sustainable water management in southern Africa. 

From March 23 to 28, the workshop “Advancing Transdisciplinary Methodologies: Weaving Land Use, Climate Change and Local Voices” took place in the GIUB. Dr. Ann-Kathrin Volmer, together with Prof. Dr. Jessica Budds, Dr. Lisa Feist and Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Dietze from Landscape Geoscience, Institute of Geography, University of Göttingen, invited international researchers from Geography and Natural and Social Sciences to reflect together on the whereabouts, the challenges and possibilities of transdisciplinary approaches. It was connected to the joint research about Land Use under Climate Change in Ecuador and Ann-Kathrin Volmer´s project “Including the role of indigenous knowledge in water governance: The case study of Lago San Pablo, Ecuador“.