Summer School Mainz 2026

The programme brought together thematic perspectives and approaches from the RECOMENT network alongside research perspectives and case studies contributed by the participants.

Focus talks by RECOMENT members explored “Community and Society” (Alexander Sarantis, LEIZA), “Urban Resiliencies” (Veronika Cummings, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), and “Landscapes of Conflict and Violence” (Dominik Maschek, LEIZA & Trier University).

A series of stimulus presentations introduced participants to RECOMENT’s four core areas of research: “Theory/Terminology” (Stefan Schreiber, LEIZA), “Methodologies” (Heike Spaderna and Karim Zafer, Trier University), “Methods” (Thomas Rigotti, Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research), and “Narratives” (Alexandra W. Busch, LEIZA & Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz). In dedicated Work-in-Progress Sessions, participants also presented their own research projects, covering a broad range of disciplines, including archaeology, environmental studies, history (including ancient, medieval, modern, and transnational history), sociology, (human) geography, social and political psychology, and sustainability studies. Taken together, these contributions highlighted the diversity of approaches to resilience research and provided a basis for discussing how different disciplinary perspectives can be brought into dialogue.

The programme of the Summer School was further complemented by activities beyond the lecture hall. A city walk through Mainz introduced participants to the city’s eventful history through the perspectives of landscapes of conflict and urban resiliencies. An excursion to the Vulkaneifel, expertly led by Holder Schaaf and Angelika Hunold (LEIZA) and their team, included visits to the Mayener Grubenfeld and the Römerbergwerk Meurin, providing concrete examples of how humans and landscapes have interacted with and responded to environmental change.

A highlight of the Summer School was the contribution of Lee Mordechai from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who joined the programme as a guest speaker. His evening lecture on the first day brought together perspectives from interdisciplinary resilience research and premodern environmental history.

The following day, his workshop, entitled “The Challenges of Interdisciplinarity: The Sixth Century CE as a Case Study,” invited participants to engage in a lively debate, critically examining historical perspectives, and connecting them to current debates on resilience.

A second workshop, led by Judith Maria Laibach (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz), introduced participants to Deep Mapping as a participatory tool, understanding it as a methodological continuum within the research process, ranging from ontological identification to epistemologically thick visualisation. Building on the week’s impulses and encounters, the Participatory Deep Mapping took place over the final two days. Following the four thematic areas of Resilient Humanscapes – Community & Society; Urban Resiliencies; Landscapes of Conflict and Violence; and Human-Environment Relations – four groups, each comprising participants and RECOMENT members, sought to develop a deep hermeneutical understanding of the spatial, temporal, and normative production of their respective resilient humanscapes.

The combination of theoretical discussions, methodological workshops, practical exercises, and excursions created space for interdisciplinary exchange and collaborative learning. The Summer School thus provided participants with an opportunity to engage with current debates on resilience while exploring how theories, methodologies, methods, and narratives can be brought together to study resilient humanscapes. By integrating these diverse perspectives and approaches, the successful first edition of the RECOMENT Summer School demonstrated the value of creating spaces in which researchers at different career stages and from diverse disciplinary backgrounds can engage with resilience as a complex and inherently interdisciplinary field of research.