LEAP Researchers’ Track

Many Early Career Researchers are finding it hard to face the environmental and social challenges of today, as only few educational institutions address them, hence finding themselves unprepared, lacking both personal and professional support. This is why in 2020, we launched a pilot program of the LEAP Researchers’ Track with 12 earlier career researchers, aiming to address these challenges. The LEAP Research Track therefore aims to empower academics, helping them reach their full potential in personal development, while fulfilling the mission of transforming economics and management education.

The program focuses on participants’ personal development, alongside providing support in the field of research and teaching. It helps shape their perspective on changes in economics and management education required to face the challenges and better understand their role in pushing these changes by becoming well informed, reflective, and purpose-driven change agents. We intend to contribute to designing an economic system that allows both the Planet and people to prosper.

The 9-month program with 12 earlier career researchers started in September, and it focuses on the element of self-development and experiential learning.
The track aims
1) to develop a community of earlier career researchers who are willing to develop their leadership, teaching, and research skills
2) to create & cultivate a culture of cooperation with shared values.
3) to allow practicing the acquired competencies by coaching university students on curriculum reform.

In 2020, these 12 researchers had monthly meetings alternating personal and professional topics. Topics such as getting to know their strengths, art of convening, and social media and research were covered in 2020. All participants have a 1:1 coach and a possibility to interact with each other in a peer to peer group. This program will run until June 2021.

We aim at turning this pilot program into a successful project with long-lasting effects on future professors and researchers participating.

The 9-month program with 12 earlier career researchers started in September, and it focuses on the element of self-development and experiential learning.
The track aims
1) to develop a community of earlier career researchers who are willing to develop their leadership, teaching, and research skills
2) to create & cultivate a culture of cooperation with shared values.
3) to allow practicing the acquired competencies by coaching university students on curriculum reform.

In 2020, these 12 researchers had monthly meetings alternating personal and professional topics. Topics such as getting to know their strengths, art of convening, and social media and research were covered in 2020. All participants have a 1:1 coach and a possibility to interact with each other in a peer to peer group. This program will run until June 2021.

We aim at turning this pilot program into a successful project with long-lasting effects on future professors and researchers participating.

Participants

Nicolás Aguilaoikos InternationalCurriculum Change Manager

Nicolás Aguilaoikos InternationalCurriculum Change Manager

Nicolás Aguila holds a bachelor’s in Economics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina and a master’s degree in Economics from The New School for Social Research in the United States of America.
He has over eight years of experience working on curriculum reform and is passionate about changing Economics and Management to build an economy fit for the people and the planet. Before joining oikos,
He worked at two well-known heterodox research institutions in Argentina and one in the U.S.A, and is an active member of several pluralist economics associations.

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Tabea BereutherUniversity of St.GallenParticipant

Tabea BereutherUniversity of St.GallenParticipant

Tabea Bereuther is a research associate at the Chair for Sustainability Management at the University of St.Gallen (HSG) and is currently the Manager for Responsibility and Sustainability at the HSG. In her PhD she focused on sustainability strategies in the food sector. She studied Business Administration in Mannheim (DE) and Seattle (USA) as well as Global Studies in Graz (AT) and Bahia Blanca (ARG). Besides her research activities at the HSG, she worked on topics of sustainability as a research assistant in private institutions in Germany and Austria. Prior to her academic career, she gathered practical experiences in the field of business sustainability. Tabea worked at BSD Consulting, focusing on sustainability reporting and at the German Federal Government in the department for Corporate Social Responsibility.

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Oliver BraunschweigThe New School, New YorkParticipant

Oliver BraunschweigThe New School, New YorkParticipant

I am a PhD Student in Economics at The New School in New York, though I live in Zurich, Switzerland, with my partner, Rabbi Elli Cohn. Originally from Switzerland, I graduated from the University of Basel with a BA in Social Sciences and Economics. My research interests today span the fields of development, history, ecological economics. I am currently working for the Council on Economic Policies as a Research Analyst on Trade Governance, and I am active in Rethinking Economics Switzerland. For several years I was also active, non-academically, as an organizer and facilitator of Muslim-Jewish dialogue.

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Clara Lea Dallaire-FortierLund UniversityParticipant

Clara Lea Dallaire-FortierLund UniversityParticipant

I am a doctoral candidate at the Department of Economic History at Lund University, Sweden. I hold two masters’ in economics, one from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and the other from University Paris Sorbonne Cite, France, as well as a bachelor’s from McGill University, Canada. My research interests revolve around industrial changes, systems of provision, and frontline communities. Strongly believing in the democratization of economics and that academic knowledge should travel beyond the university walls, I have been advocating in movements for pluralism in economics since 2014 such as Rethinking Economics. Moreover, I had the chance to work for different research institutes, knowledge-transfer organizations, and regional agencies in my home country, Canada.

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Ádám KerényiInstitute of World Economics, BudapestParticipant

Ádám KerényiInstitute of World Economics, BudapestParticipant

1. Teaching Assistant of Economics of Modern Banking course, Columbia University Barnard College, 2020-to date
2. Analyst, Ministry of Finance, Department of Competitiveness, 2020-to date
3. Research Fellow, 2017 – to date
Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Institute of Word Economics, Budapest, Hungary
4. External Fellow, 2020-to date The Centre for Social Sciences, POLECON, Budapest, Hungary
5. Lecturer of corporate finance and investment policies, 2016- to date
University of Szeged, Hungary
6. Lecturer of international economy, 2018- to date
Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
7. Research assistant of professor János Kornai, 2013- to date

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Jakob KnaufUniversity of St.GallenParticipant

Jakob KnaufUniversity of St.GallenParticipant

Research Associate and Doctoral Candidate at University of St.Gallen (Institute for Economy and the Environment). More info: LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/jakob-knauf

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Sarah MartinHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, LiepzigParticipant

Sarah MartinHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, LiepzigParticipant

Sarah is a doctoral researcher at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research at the Department of Physiological Diversity in Leipzig, Germany. Her research interest focuses on seed and seedling traits and their effect on grassland plant diversity in relation to land-use intensity. She studied Environmental Sciences with a specialization on Biodiversity and Ecosystems in a Double Degree Master Studies at the University of Copenhagen (2018-2019) and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (2017-2018). She studied Geo-ecology during her Undergraduate Studies at the University of Bayreuth, Germany (2014-2017).
Besides her studies, she continuously was engaged in oikos matters striving to be a part of the change for a more sustainable world, first as a part of oikos Bayreuth (2015 – 2017), later as a member of oikos Vienna (2017-2018) and last as a board member of oikos international (2018-2019).

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Mariam PatsatsiaUniversity of BremenParticipant

Mariam PatsatsiaUniversity of BremenParticipant

Mariam studies MA International Relations with a focus on Global Governance and Social Theories. Currently, she works as a student assistant for a research project on The Legacy of Colonialism: Origins and Outcomes of Social Protection at the University of Bremen and as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate Advanced IR Theories class at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. Originally from Georgia, Mariam completed her BA studies at Tbilisi State University in 2017. She has previously worked for oikos International as a communications manager, and before that served a brief stint as a journalist covering political and social issues in her country.
A PhD-wanna-be, her research interests include forms of power and political violence, transnational social movements, inequality and human rights.

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Lennart ReymannPolytechnische Schule Im Zentrum, ViennaParticipant

Lennart ReymannPolytechnische Schule Im Zentrum, ViennaParticipant

With a science background in International Development and Communication Science, Lennart Reymann started 2014 as a Teach For Austria Fellow in the Polytechnische Schule Im Zentrum (prevocational school). In 2015 he initiated a project class, focused on language acquisition in a practically relevant framework established by a student company. In doing so he realized just how much the organization of schools in Austria restraints schools from developing and reaching educational justice. Framework Education is his answer to tackle this issue.

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Florian RommelCusanus UniversityParticipant

Florian RommelCusanus UniversityParticipant

Florian Rommel (M.A.) is a research associate at the Cusanus University. After completing his B.A. Studied economic and social design in Philosophy & Economics (University of Bayreuth). He co-founded the Plural Economics working group in Bayreuth and has been involved in setting up the Cusanus University since 2014. Since 2018 he has been doing his doctorate at the Goethe University Frankfurt a.M. with Bertram Schefold on plural economics.

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Magdalena Rusch, BA MScUniversity of GrazParticipant

Magdalena Rusch, BA MScUniversity of GrazParticipant

Growing up in a small city in Austria, Magdalena soon felt the aspiration to explore the world. For her bachelors, she moved to Innsbruck to study Management & Law and spent her exchange semesters in Bangkok (Thailand) and Trondheim (Norway). Before continuing with her masters, she gained some work experience as an intern in an innovation consultancy and at the Austrian chamber of commerce in Berlin. Passionate about many kinds of sustainability issues, she decided to study Environmental Systems Sciences with a specialisation in Sustainability and Innovation Management at the University of Graz. Currently, she works as a PhD researcher at the “CD-Laboratory for Sustainable Product Management in a Circular Economy” at the Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research, University of Graz.

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Lea TrogrlicEcole polytechnique fédérale de LausanneParticipant

Lea TrogrlicEcole polytechnique fédérale de LausanneParticipant

PhD candidate at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

LinkedIn: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/lea-trogrlic-2a1054173

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“I really enjoyed being part of this program as it helped me to reflect on my personal values and strengths and supported me how to use them in my private and professional life. The program with its diverse people and topics was a great source of inspiration for current and future projects and personal developments. Thanks a lot, to oikos international and the entire LEAP researcher’s track cohort for making the nine months such an exciting joint learning experience.” 

– Tabea Bereuther

“It was a pleasure to get to know fellow oikees from so many different places and to explore with them the meaning and practice of our research in the LEAP Researchers’ Track. The self-led group process, the small-group discussions, and the individual coaching reinforced each other and contributed to the success of this program. It inspired my academic work and opened up new perspectives. I was always looking forward to our next meeting in which we reflected on our goals, approaches, and strengths, brought together by the ideals of support for each other, open-mindedness, and care for sustainability.”

– Oliver Braunschweig

“The LEAP researcher’s track has helped me to set the stage for my PhD in the very beginning. The programme has helped me to identify and set up the environment I need to thrive in. Additionally, I gained insights of how to apply hands-on tools to improve my way of working. All in all, I can only recommend this programme to everyone who embarks on the PhD journey.”

– Lea Trogrlic

“The LEAP Researchers’ Track has really boosted my personal development in research and teaching. Monthly meetings, 1:1 coaching, and advising university students on curriculum reform are just a few examples of this program where participants can create real impact towards greater sustainability.”

– Jakob Knauf

“The oikos LEAP researcher’s track was a thought-provoking and creative journey that inspired me in many different ways. It is a great leadership program that offers space for dialogue, co-creation, and personal development. For me, it was an excellent place to connect with like-minded people and explore new ideas together. I am very grateful for all the insightful sessions about leadership, coaching, sustainability (e.g., in higher education), and research topics during the last 9 months.”

– Magdalena Rusch