Alena Mathis M.A.

Research Assistant

Research Interests

  • Solastalgia
  • Multispecies Relationships
  • Intangible Cultural Heritage and Climate Change
  • Sensory Perception
  • Spirituality, Realities
  • Science theory

  • Since 2024 Doctoral Fellow at the German Federal Environmental Foundation
  • Since 2023 Research Assistant at the Junior Professorship
  • 2023 Research Assistant at Bildungsbüro, Mayor’s Office, Municipality of Nuremberg (project-based)
  • 2022-2023 Student Assistant at the Junior Professorship
  • 2021-2022 Seminar Leader in Adult Education, Internationaler Bund e.V., Bamberg
  • 2019-2022 Master Studies in Sociology, Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg
  • 2017 Internship Semester, Toronto/Canada
  • 2015-2019 Bachelor Studies in Music and Movement Oriented Social Work, Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg

  • 2020: Sponsorship Award of the Barmherzige Brüder Bayerische Ordensprovinz for Bachelor Thesis ?Music and Movement Oriented Social Work in Grief Counselling. Backgrounds and Considerations for Opening Up A New Field of Activity“ (first placed)

  • “Solastalgia in the Alps? On Emotional Dimensions of (Climate) Change in Mountain Agriculture” (PhD Colloquium “Rural Studies #5”, Bamberg, September 25-27, 2024).
  • “Sensing Extinction and Creating Awareness: Solastalgia as an Emotional ‘Contact Zone’ between the Human and Non-human World” (Conference “Traces of Extinction: Species Loss, Solastalgia and Semiotics of Recovery”, University of Tartu/Estonia, June 5-7, 2024). Paper available here(267.3 KB). Abstract volume to be published in 2025.
  • “Solastalgia. A Cultural Studies Investigation of Senses of Loss, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Climate Change in the Allg?u Alps” (PhD Colloquium, Walderbach, February 21-22, 2024).

Seminars

  • Extinction Studies: About Cultural Practices in Dealing with Dying Species (winter term 2024/25)
  • To Read and Understand Scientific Texts – Reading Course (winter term 2023/24, summer term 2024)
  • Solastalgia – Grief in the Climate Crisis. A Response to the Loss of ‘Nature’ (summer term 2023)

Field Trips

  • Sounds of Bamberg. Searching for Acoustigraphic Traces (summer term 2024)
  • "Renew Local History Museums!" Symposium in Munich (winter term 2023/24)

Current Research

"SOLASTALGIA - A European-Ethnological Investigation of Senses of Loss, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Climate Change in the Allg?u Alps" (working title)
(PhD project)