Saskia Maassen

Saskia Maassen is a Researcher at the University of Cologne's Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities (MESH) program, affiliated with the Department of Environmental Humanities. She serves as Research Assistant to Professor Kate Rigby (since July 2022) and Communications Specialist for the UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Global Coalition Thematic Hub for Planetary Wellbeing (since 2024). Holding a BA in Literary Studies from Cologne, she is currently pursuing dual Master's degrees in Theories and Practices of Professional Writing and Germanic Studies/Philosophy. Her work bridges environmental humanities, contemporary epistemology, and ethical dimensions of knowledge production, particularly regarding AI systems. She employs multimodal methodologies including literary analysis and visual word art.

Academic engagements include presentations at interdisciplinary conferences such as the 17th Winter Meeting of the International Consortium for Interdisciplinary Education about Health and the Environment (2024), EUniWell Pop-Up Academy (2023), and workshops on philosophical intuitions (2023). She participated in the Florence Summer School on natural-cultural conservation and volunteered at the European Conference on African Studies (2023). Her research interests emphasize sociotechnical systems, climate governance discourse, and the ethical intersections of literature/art with ecological crises.