Speakers

Theodossis (Theo) Issaias is an adjunct instructor with the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture. An architect and educator, he recently joined the Heinz Architectural Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art as associate curator. Issaias earned his architecture degree at the National Technical University of Athens and a master’s degree in architecture and urbanism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technollgy. His doctoral dissertation, “Architectures of the Humanitarian Front” at Yale University, explores the nexus of humanitarian organizations and architecture and their relation to conflict, displacement, and the provision of shelter. Since 2009, he has been practicing as a founding member of Fatura Collaborative, an architecture and research collective. The group’s work has been presented in museums, conferences, and exhibitions including the Venice Architectural Biennale (in 2014, 2016, and 2020), Manifesta, and The Benaki Museum of Athens, among others.

Achilles Kallergis is an assistant professor at the New School for Social Research in New York and the director of the Cities and Migration Project at the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility. His research focuses on urbanization, migration, and mobility in rapidly growing cities. Specifically, it explores environmental mobility and how locally-generated data can provide new evidence on mobility patterns and contribute to improving living conditions in low-income destination areas through better provision of housing and services. In his research, Kallergis has collaborated with transnational community networks Slum/Shack Dwellers International and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights. At Zolberg, he directs the research program on cities and migration and coordinates the Research Platform on Cities and Human Mobility. He was previously a research scholar at the Marron Institute of Urban Management at New York University. He has taught at the New School in New York. His work has been published in academic journals and edited books.

Robert Beyer is a data and research analyst supporting the International Organization for Migration’s work on migration, environment, climate change, and risk reduction. He focuses on the collection and analysis of quantitative data on migration and displacement in the context of disasters, climate change, and environmental degradation, and will coordinate the development of IOM’s data road map on these issues. Robert holds master’s degrees in mathematics and archaeology, and obtained a double doctorate in mathematics (Ecole Centrale Paris) and forest science (Technical University of Munich). Before joining IOM in September 2022, he was a research associate at the University of Cambridge, a Marie-Curie fellow at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and an adjunct lecturer in mathematics at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Simone Sandholz leads the Urban Futures and Sustainability Transformation Programme at the United Nations University-Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS). She holds a doctorate in geography, a master’s degree in natural resources management, and a diploma in architecture and urban planning. In her research, Sandholz focuses on different aspects of future-oriented vulnerability and risk reduction with a focus on urban areas. Sandholz has co-authored numerous research articles, books, and book chapters, as well as policy and outreach publications. Her tasks include securing third-party funding, as well as supervising team members, visiting scientists, and master’s students. On top of her teaching activities at UNU-EHS and UNU-MERIT (Maastricht, NL), Sandholz has teaching experience in German and international universities. She is representative of UNU-EHS in the Evaluation Commission of the Joint Master’s Programme ‘Geography of Environmental Risks and Human Security’ with the University of Bonn, as well as a deputy member of the Academic Board. Sandholz previously worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Geography, University of Innsbruck (Austria).

Hannah Poole is a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies. Her research focuses on the intersection of mobilities, money, and borders. For the research project “Doing the Game. The Moral Economy of Coming to Europe,” she conducted a multi-sited ethnography on undocumented migration trajectories from Afghanistan to Germany. Her research has been awarded the Dissertation Prize of the German Sociological Association (DGS), the Dietrich Thränhart Prize of the German Political Science Association (DVPW), the Maria Ioannis Baganha Prize for Migration Studies of IMISCOE, the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, and the Albert Ballin Prize for Globalization Studies. Hannah has been a visiting scholar at United Nations Development Programme, the Refugee Studies Center, the COMPAS Institute at Oxford University, Columbia University, and the Berlin Center for Social Sciences (WZB). She studied in St. Andrews, Tehran, and Dresden, funded by the German National Academic Scholarship and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Dima Abu-Aridah is a Ph.D. student at Penn State, Stuckeman School of Architecture. Her doctoral dissertation has been mainly in relation to Syrian refugee camps. Her research focuses on the spatial practices and everyday experiences of refugees and displaced populations in different contexts, such as camps, cities, and borders.