Haik Thomas Porada

Prof. Dr. Haik Thomas Porada is Acting Head of the Department for Theory, Methodology and History of Geography at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) and Honorary Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Bamberg. His career spans over two decades at IfL, where he coordinates research on historical geographies, cultural landscapes, and Baltic Sea region studies.

• PhD from University of Greifswald (2006)
• MA in History, Scandinavian Studies, and Geography (1997)

His research focuses on:

• Historical Geography of Germany, the Baltic Sea region, and Scandinavia
• Cultural Landscapes with emphasis on legal spatial organization and heritage
• Cartography of early modern Baltic and Pomeranian regions
• Migration Studies through historical mobilities and transformations

His 2024-2025 publications analyze:

• UNESCO World Documentary Heritage
• Swedish colonial cartography
• Pomeranian legal landscape evolution
• Reformation-era religious geography

Awarded the Pomeranian Culture Prize (2018) and Dr.-Dagobert-Nitz Research Prize (2020), he contributes to multiple academic organizations including the Saxon Academy of Sciences and the German-Polish Textbook Commission. As co-editor of the Yearbook for Regional History and member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Michael Succow Foundation, his work bridges archival research with contemporary regional policy.

Porada leads projects at the Leibniz Lab for Upheavals and Transformations and participates in the ScienceCampus EEGA initiative, focusing on historical landscape analysis through interdisciplinary methods combining geography, history, and archival studies.