The ZNWU welcomes the visiting scholar Adriano Diego Klein from the UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Department Agribusiness, from Brazil. He will work on his PHD project “reginal food hubs: Online Healthy and sustainable food sales and the need of food resignification” with Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klüh. The aim of the research is to analyze the Darmstadt more resilient food system which operates online and focuses on a short chain of organic healthy products. He is also a funded by CAPES-Brazil (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) to made partner in Germany for further research and cooperation with Brazil.

In the WS19/20 the ZNWU welcomes the visiting scholar Mirela Marcut from the University of Oradea, Department of International Relations and European Studies, from Romania. She will work on the DAAD-funded project “Comparative Analysis of Smart/Digital Cities”. The aim of the research is to analyse the Darmstadt Digital City project conducted in the city in order to provide best practices and policy recommendations for cities in Romania. The context of the project is determined by the European Union’s current efforts to promote digital transformation. The methodology concerns a comparative analysis of smart/digital city strategies from Darmstadt and Romanian cities, based on a framework of document analysis and interviews with key people involved in the project.

The ZNWU welcomes a new lecturer in WS18/19: Mrs. Caroline Rippe from the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul in Erechim, Brazil. Together with Prof. Dr. Ulrich Klüh she will give the lecture “Sustainable agriculture: Examples and policies” in Dieburg.

Ms. Rippe is currently doing research for her doctoral thesis. She examines the influence of Germany and German capital assistance on the Brazilian economy in the 1960s and 1970s, with a view to Ordoliberalism and its influence on Brazilian politics.

E-mail: caroline.rippe@h-da.de