Dr. Alexander Vorbrugg

Curriculum Vitae

I am a senior researcher in the Critical Sustainability Studies working group. Before joining the Institute of Geography in Bern in March 2018, I gained a Ph.D. in Geography from Goethe University Frankfurt and was a visiting scholar at the New School in New York. I studied Geography, Sociology, Slavonic Studies, and Political Science in Tübingen, Moscow, and Frankfurt/Main. Currently, I am a visitng research fellow at the Department of Geography and the Institute of Advanced Studies at University College London (UCL).

My research focuses on three domains:

Rural change and agricultural land: Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, I have studied and theorized complex forms and temporalities of rural change and dispossession in contemporary Russia. I am finalizing a monograph on this theme, entitled "Dispersed Dispossession. Disintegration and the Appropriation of Liminal Land" (under contract, University of Georgia Press).

The political ecology of forest transitions: I am interested in how resources are being made, reframed, and governed in the context of environmental change. In my ongoing project “Russia’s New Forests”, I examine how trees growing on abandoned agricultural land are currently being turned into objects of knowledge, governance, economic and environmental interest in fundamentally new ways. The project is funded through a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione grant.

Collaborative methodologies: I engage in projects on ethnographic collaborative research and the politics of fieldwork; artistic and visual forms of research and science communication (mLAB); and interdisciplinary collaborations around questions of forest transitions, reforestation, and environmental politics.

Researchgate

Forschung

Research and Teaching Interests

Agrarian political economy and critical rural studies, rural dispossession
Political ecology of forest transitions
Economic and resource geographies in the context of global change
Environmental politics (with a particular focus on Eastern Europe)
Social theory (critical, feminist, materialist theories; environmental theories)
Qualitative research (ethnography, visual methods, materialist methods)

Projects

Russia’s New Forests: Assembling and Governing a Resource Frontier (ongoing, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF)
mLAB (ongoing)
Dispersed Dispossession. Rural Change in Contemporary Russia (ongoing)
Property Rights and Communal Services: The Implementation of Local Self-Government in Rural Russia (funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), with P. Lindner and A. Nikulin, completed)
Governing through civil society? The work of German political foundations in Ukraine (funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, completed)

Lehre

Gerne betreue ich Abschlussarbeiten im Bereich meiner Forschungsthemen.

Mitgliedschaften & Engagement

Mitglied des mLAB

Mitherausgeber der Geographica Helvetica

Mitherausgeber der Buchreihe Kritische Landforschung

Sprecher der Fachgruppe Geographie, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde (DGO)

Mitglied der Arbeitsgruppe Agricultural Land Abandonment as a Global Land-Use Change Phenomenon, Global Land Programme

Aktive Mitgliedschaften:

AK Feminisische Geographien (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geographie)
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde e.V. (DGO)
DFG-Netzwerk “Feministische Geographien des new materialism"

Publikationen

Journal Articles

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2022, online first): Making sense of (the Russian war in) Ukraine: On the politics of knowledge and expertise. In Political Geography, p. 102700. DOI: 10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102700.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Ethnographies of slow violence: Epistemological alliances in fieldwork and narrating ruins. In Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, pp. 1–16. DOI: 10.1177/2399654419881660.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2020): Этнографии медленного насилия: исследование последствий разрушения сельской инфраструктуры. In Russian Peasant Studies 5 (1), pp. 31–52. DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2020-5-1-31-52.

Thieme, Susan; Eyer, Phillip; and Vorbrugg, Alexander (2019): Film VerORTen: Film als Forschungs- und Kommunikationsmedium in der Geographie, Geogr. Helv., 74, pp. 293–297. DOI: 10.5194/gh-74-293-2019.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2019): Not about land, not quite a grab: dispersed dispossession in rural Russia. In Antipode 51 (3), pp. 1011–1031. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12523.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2018): Не только о земле и о ее захватах: дисперсное лишение прав в сельской России. In Крестьяноведение - Russian Peasant Studies 3 (3), pp. 19–47. DOI: 10.22394/2500-1809-2018-3-3-19-47.

Hoppe, Katharina; Klingenberg, Darja; Thompson, Vanessa Eileen; Trautmann, Felix; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2018): Worüber wir reden, wenn wir mit jemandem nicht reden wollen. Zum Spannungsverhältnis von Rassismuskritik und Meinungsfreiheit an der Universität. In: movements: Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies 4 (1), S. 167–177.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2015): Governing through civil society? The making of a post-Soviet political subject in Ukraine. In Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 33 (1), pp. 136–153. DOI: 10.1068/d13055p.

Lindner, P.; Vorbrugg, A. (2012): Wiederkehr der Landfrage. Großinvestitionen in Russlands Landwirtschaft. In Osteuropa 62 (6-8), pp. 325–344.

Monographs

Vorbrugg, Alexander (forthcoming): Dispersed Dispossession. Disintegration and the Appropriation of Liminal Land. Monograph under contract with the University of Georgia Press, Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation Series.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2017): Dispersed Dispossession. New Agricultural Players, Local Political Economies and De/Structural Violence in Rural Russia. Dissertation. Goethe Universität Frankfurt. Frankfurt/Main.

Edited Volumes and Issues

Autor*innenkollektiv Geographie und Geschlecht (Ed.) (2021): Handbuch feministische Geographien. Arbeitsweisen und Konzepte. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

Klosterkamp, Sarah; Vorbrugg, Alexander (Eds.) (2020): Feminist Research Practice in Geography: Snapshots, Reflections, Concepts. Feministische GeoRundmail (83). Bern.

Book Chapters

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Klosterkamp, Sarah; Thompson, Vanessa E. (2021): Feldforschung als soziale Praxis. Ansätze für ein verantwortungsvolles und feministisch inspiriertes Forschen. In Autor*innenkollektiv Geographie und Geschlecht (Ed.): Handbuch feministische Geographien. Arbeitsweisen und Konzepte. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

Schwiter, Karin; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2021): Ein Plädoyer für Slow Scholarship: Feministische Strategien für eine entschleunigte und bessere Wissenschaft. In Autor*innenkollektiv Geographie und Geschlecht (Ed.): Handbuch feministische Geographien. Arbeitsweisen und Konzepte. Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich.

Vorbrugg, Alexander; Ouma, Stefan (2020): Große Transformationen des Ländlichen: Agrarwirtschaft in der globalen Marktgesellschaft. In Hans Gebhardt, Rüdiger Glaser, Ulrich Radtke, Paul Reuber, Andreas Vött (Eds.): Geographie. Physische Geographie und Humangeographie. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Spektrum, 926–937.

Vorbrugg, Alexander (2019): Ressourcen. In Jan Brunner, Anna Dobelmann, Sarah Kirst, Louisa Prause (Eds.): Wörterbuch Land- und Rohstoffkonflikte. 1. Auflage. Bielefeld: Transcript; transcript Verlag (Global Studies), pp. 272–278.

Thompson, V. E.; Vorbrugg, A. (2018): Rassismuskritik an der Hochschule. Mit oder trotz Diversity Policies? In M. Laufenberg, M. Erlemann, P. Lucht, M. Norkus, G. Petschick (Eds.): Prekäre Gleichstellung: Geschlechtergerechtigkeit, soziale Ungleichheit und unsichere Arbeitsverhältnisse in der Wissenschaft. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Lindner, Peter; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2013): Die Transformation der Landwirtschaft in Russland. In Hans Gebhardt, Rüdiger Glaser, Sebastian Lentz (Eds.): Europa - eine Geographie. Berlin: Springer Spektrum, pp. 264–265.

Haide, E. v. d.; Vorbrugg, A. (2009): Frauen und Frauenprojekte im Kaschmirkonflikt: Beispiele von Gemeinwesenarbeit in einer Konfliktregion. In S. Elsen (Ed.): Gemeinwesen gestalten - Lernen für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Neu-Ulm: AG-SPAK-Bücher (218), pp. 175–189.

Working Papers, Electronic Journals (selection)

Vorbrugg, A. (2017): Not About Land, Not Quite a Grab: Rural Transformation and Dispersed Dispossession in Russia. Paper prepared for the 5th International Conference of the BRICS Initiative for Critical Agrarian Studies in Moscow. Available online at https://www.iss.nl/fileadmin/ASSETS/iss/Documents/Conference_papers/BICAS_CP_5-26_Vorbrugg.pdf.

Lindner, P.; Vorbrugg, A. (2011): Die russische Landwirtshaft im Privatisierungsprozess: Vom Kolchos- zum Investorenarchipel? In Russland-Analysen (229), pp. 2–6.

Miscellaneous (selection)

Davydova, Angelina; Doose, Katja; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Other casualties of Putin’s war in Ukraine: Russia’s climate goals and science. In The Conversation, 5/23/2022. Available online at https://theconversation.com/other-casualties-of-putins-war-in-ukraine-russias-climate-goals-and-science-182995

Davydova, Angelina; Doose, Katja; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Les politiques climatiques, ces autres victimes de la guerre de Poutine en Ukraine. In The Conversation, 7/7/2022. Available online at https://theconversation.com/les-politiques-climatiques-ces-autres-victimes-de-la-guerre-de-poutine-en-ukraine-186255.

Davydova, Angelina; Doose, Katja; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2022): Арктика, «зеленый переход», СО2. Как война с Украиной бьет по климатическим проектам в России, которые важны для всего мира, 7/4/2022. Available online at https://republic.ru/posts/104348.

Bachmann, Veit; Mattissek, Annika; Ruppert, Linda; Stenmanns, Julian; Vorbrugg, Alexander (2020): Kritische Militärgeographie - Anliegen und Abgrenzungen. In Rundbrief Geographie (282), pp. 28–30.

Documentary Films

Women Between the Front Lines (2007). Co-directed with E. v. d. Haide and A. Khan. EVDH Production, Pullach, 2007. Website: https://womenbetweenthefrontlines.wordpress.com/.

No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from the Housing Struggles in Cape Town (2005). Co-directed with E. v. d. Haide. Indymedia Cape Town Production, Cape Town, South Africa, 2005.

Geographisches Institut