Carmella Pfaffenbach

Prof. Dr. Carmella Pfaffenbach serves as Universitätsprofessorin (Full Professor) leading the Department of Cultural Geography within the Faculty of Geosciences and Resources Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. She heads the Built and Lived Environment (BLE) profile area and maintains her office at Wüllnerstraße 5b in Aachen. Her research team includes multiple doctoral candidates and researchers working on migration, housing, and urban spatial dynamics.

Dr. Pfaffenbach's academic background includes a Habilitation from the University of Bayreuth (2001), doctoral studies at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (1990-1993), and undergraduate studies in Geography, Islam Studies, and Sociology. Her career trajectory spans guest professorships at the University of Vienna, Rabat, and GUtech Oman, along with prior academic positions at Munich and Bayreuth universities before assuming her current leadership role in 2007.

Her primary research focuses on cultural geography with emphasis on migration integration, housing studies, and spatial inequality. Current projects include Temporalität des Wohnens (housing temporality and emotional attachment) and sustainable housing transformation in Oman. Her work demonstrates strong methodological innovation, particularly in mobile ethnography and mixed-methods approaches to studying refugee integration and urban poverty patterns.

Analysis of her recent publications (2021-2025) reveals three dominant research streams: (1) German urban poverty and spatial segregation patterns, (2) Omani migration dynamics with focus on South Asian communities, and (3) methodological innovations in soundscape and mobility research. Her work frequently employs comparative frameworks across German and Gulf contexts, with particular attention to gendered spatial experiences.

As Vertrauensdozentin for the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and co-editor of Geographische Zeitschrift, she maintains significant academic service roles. Her research team includes doctoral candidates working on refugee integration, urban poverty mapping, and Omani housing dynamics, supported through institutional frameworks like the RWTH profile area.

Current research infrastructure includes collaborations with KIT Karlsruhe, University of Mainz, and German University of Technology in Oman. Her lab structure operates within the Built and Lived Environment profile area, facilitating interdisciplinary work on urban spatial dynamics through both qualitative fieldwork and quantitative spatial analysis approaches.