Melissa Hanke

Melissa Hanke is a Part-Time Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Hamburg, specializing in the Didactics of Social Sciences and Mathematics and Natural Sciences (EW 5). Her work focuses on climate change education, uncertainty in geography teaching, and teacher professional development in VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) contexts.

Her research emphasizes how pre-service geography teachers navigate

• disciplinary uncertainties
• pedagogical challenges
• climate change narratives

through empirical studies and systematic reviews. Recent publications analyze urban heat islands, oceanic oxygen loss, and climate adaptation strategies using geospatial tools.

Melissa has received prestigious funding including

• Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes Fellowship
• Landesgraduiertenförderung Hamburg

and actively organizes academic conferences like the HGD Symposium. She teaches courses on geography education in VUCA environments and contributes to textbook development (e.g., Diercke Praxis SI 2025 edition).