معرفی
Diana Hummel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt's Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science. She has been a research associate at the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) since 2002 and served as a member of the institute's management from April 2014 to March 2023. At ISOE, she coordinates teaching and junior researchers as well as the institute's research program, and previously headed the research focus on population development and healthcare.
Hummel received her education in education, psychology, and social sciences at the University of Frankfurt am Main. She earned her doctorate in 1999 with a dissertation on "Population Discourse: Demographic Knowledge and Political Power" and completed her habilitation in 2009 on "Providing Care to the Population – Studies on Population Dynamics and the Transformation of Care Systems."
Diana Hummel's research spans several interconnected fields of social-ecological inquiry. Her work centers on the complex relationships between demographic processes and environmental systems, with particular attention to supply systems, biodiversity, and climate change. She has developed significant expertise in social ecology, examining how societal relations to nature shape and are shaped by environmental transformations. Her research integrates gender perspectives, exploring how demographic changes intersect with environmental challenges and sustainability transitions. Hummel's approach is inherently transdisciplinary, bridging social sciences with ecological research to address pressing sustainability issues in the Anthropocene. She has made substantial contributions to understanding population dynamics, migration-environment linkages, and the governance of natural resources.
Hummel's scholarly output reveals a consistent focus on social-ecological transformations, with increasing attention to biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, and the governance challenges of the Anthropocene. Her recent work demonstrates a sophisticated integration of theoretical frameworks with practical policy implications, particularly regarding normative dimensions of environmental conflicts and the role of gender in sustainability transitions. She has developed expertise in analyzing how demographic changes interact with environmental systems, particularly in contexts of resource scarcity and climate vulnerability.
Diana Hummel actively contributes to several professional networks including the Cornelia Goethe Center for Women's Studies and Gender Relations (CGC), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN), and was an associate member of the German Committee for Sustainability Research in Future Earth (2015-2017).
As coordinator for teaching and junior researchers at ISOE, Hummel plays a significant role in mentoring the next generation of social-ecological scholars. She has been involved in numerous research projects addressing critical sustainability challenges, including biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, gender-responsive climate policy, and the social dimensions of environmental change. Her leadership extends to initiatives like the "Brilliant Minds for Social-Ecological Transformations" Summer School, which focuses on applied training for young researchers in transdisciplinary project design and implementation.
At ISOE, Hummel contributes to various research teams focused on pressing environmental challenges. She has been instrumental in projects examining biodiversity dynamics (SoCoDES, NormA, SoCuLa), climate adaptation (FlutNetz), sustainable infrastructure (IMAGINE), and the social dimensions of environmental change (micle, demons). Her work consistently emphasizes the importance of integrating social and ecological perspectives to develop robust solutions for sustainability challenges.
