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Faculty 6
Chair of Regional planning Prof. Dr. Ludger Gailing

Dr. des. Kamil Bembnista

© Katarzyna Mazur

Contact
Building 2A, Room 2.18
T +49 (0) 355 69 3134
Kamil.Bembnista(at)b-tu.de

2024–2026
Research Fellow at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), Department of Urban Development and Mobility, Project: “Border Semiotics. The impact of rebordering on cross-border cooperation. A social semiotic approach to borders’ symbolic meaning” (BOMIOTICS); “Views behind the Scene – Visualizing inequality, belonging, and everyday life from the shadow of European Borderlands” (B-SCENE)

2024
Ph.D. at the Institute for Communication Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen

Since 2026; 2021–2024
Research Assistant in the Department of Regional Planning at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) in the BMBF project “Linking Borderlands: Dynamics of Border Region Peripheries” (04/2021–03/2024), research focus: “Energy Borderlands,” “Integrative Development of Fair Balancing of Interests between Urban and Rural Areas” (ReGerecht)

Since 2019
Associate member of the Collaborative Research Center 1265 “Refiguration of Spaces” at the Technical University of Berlin

2016–2020
Research Associate at the Leibniz Institute for Spatial Social Research (IRS), Research Department “Communication and Knowledge Dynamics in Space”; Projects:
• DFG-NCN Project “Sociospatial Transformations in German-Polish ‘Interstices’. Practices of Debordering and Rebordering" (De-Re-Bord) as part of the Beethoven Funding Program (Duration 05/2018–12/2020)
• DFG-NCN Project “Cultural Constructions of Vulnerability and Resilience. Perceptions of Risks from Aquatic Phenomena on the Oder in Germany and Poland” (CultCon) as part of the Beethoven Funding Program (Duration: May 2016–April 2018)

  • Critical Border Studies
  • Migration Research
  • Participatory Filmmaking
  • Multispecies Studies
  • Research on Inequality and Justice
  • Qualitative Visual Methods
  • Discourse Analysis in the Sociology of Knowledge
  • Visual Discourse Analysis
  • Sociology of Space

Bembnista, K. (i.E.). Border Exposures – Exploring Discourses of Uncertainty in Borderlands. In: Border Studies. Cultures, Spaces, Orders. Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Bembnista, K. & Gailing, L. (review). The Role of Borders in Energy Dispositives: The Socio-Materiality of Polish-German Energy Borderlands. Journal of Borderlands Studies.

Sohn, C., Bembnista, K., & Jakob, J. (i.E.). Exploring the Visual Grammar of Border Meaning-Making Strategies. In: Oxford Intersections: Borders. New York: Oxford University Press.

Opiłowska, E. & Bembnista, K. (2025). A mature neighborhood? The German-Polish border from the perspective of 18 years of Schengen experience. In: D. Brodowski, J. Dittel & F. Weber (Eds.), 40 Years of the Schengen Agreement. Europe and its Internal Borders (Saarbrücken Contributions to European Research). Baden-Baden: Nomos.

Sommer, V.,/Bembnista, K. (2024): Multimodal Discourse Analysis. In: Heinrich, A. J./Marguin, S./Million, A./Stollmann, J. (Hrsg.): Handbook of Qualitative and Visual Methods in Spatial Research. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, S. 337-352.

Bembnista, K./Gailing, L. (2024): Energy Borderlands: zwischen lokalen grenzüberschreitenden Energieprojekten und nationalen Energiestrategien. In: Bonin, S./Gailing, L./Mangels, K./Schank, T./Zinkhahn Rhobodes, D. (Hrsg.): Linking Borderlands. Komplexität – Dynamik – Interdisziplinarität (Border Studies. Cultures, Spaces, Orders). Baden-Baden: Nomos, S. 73-84.

Jagetic Andersen, D./Aubry, L./Bembnista, K. (2024): At Home in the Borderlands – Multiple homing from the perspective of European borderlands. In: Bonin, S./Gailing, L./Mangels, K./Schank, T./Zinkhahn Rhobodes, D. (Hrsg.): Linking Borderlands. Komplexität – Dynamik – Interdisziplinarität. (Border Studies. Cultures, Spaces, Orders). Baden-Baden: Nomos, S. 147-161.

Bembnista, K./Gailing, L. (2024): The Socio-Spatiality of Energy Borderlands – Multidimensional Discursive Practices Regarding the Turów Coal Mine Conflict. Journal of Borderlands Studies, DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2024.2330058

Lampke, A./Bembnista, K./Weber, F./Gailing, L./Dörrenbächer, H. P. (2023): Energy Borderlands in Comparison: On the Empirical Productivity of the Concepts around Interconnected Areas and Conflict Zones. In: Bembnista, Kamil et al. (Hrsg.): Linking Borderlands: Dynamics of Cross-Border Peripheries. Conceptual and empirical insights from an interdisciplinary perspective. UniGR-CBS Working Paper Vol. 17, 57-70, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8032941

Bembnista, K./Blaser, B./Bonin, S./Dörrenbächer, H. P./Fellner, A. M./Gailing, L./Jungbluth, K./Lampke, A./Luxenburger, I./Mangels, K./Micka, L./Nossem, E./Orlova, G./Pallagst, K./Pfundstein, N./Polzin-Haumann, C./Reents, M./Richter, N./Schank, T./Thurm, S./Ulrich, P./Weber, F./Wenzelburger, G./Zinkhahn Rhobodes, D. (Hrsg.) (2023): Linking Borderlands: Dynamics of Cross-Border Peripheries. Conceptual and empirical insights from an interdisciplinary perspective. UniGR-CBS Working Paper Vol. 17, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8032941

Zeißig, H./Binder, J./Bembnista, K./Mettenberger, T./Ulrich, P./Witting, A./Zscherneck, J., (2023): Digitale Pioniere in der ländlichen Regionalentwicklung: Handlungsempfehlungen für die regionale Governance. Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, DOI: https://doi.org/10.26127/BTUOpen-6363.

Bembnista, K./Stoustrup, S./Sommer, V. (2022): "Lost in Space: Introducing the spatial dispositif in space-sensitive discourse research", Journal for Discourse Studies; Special Issue: Materiality and Discourse, S. 291-309.

Heimann, T./Barcz, A./Christmann, G./Bembnista, K./Michalak, A./Buchta-Bartodziej, P., (2021): The Cultural Embeddedness of Vulnerability and Resilience to Floods. Actors, media and literary knowledge in German and Polish Odra River Regions. In: Space & Culture.

Bembnista, K./Sommer, V., (2021), Multimodale Diskursanalyse, Methoden der qualitativen Raumforschung: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Heinrich, A. J., Marguin, S., Million, A. & Stollmann, J. (Hrsg.). UTB, S. 427-443.

Bembnista, K./Heimann, T., (2020): Zur diskursiven Konstruktion des Erinnerns. Vulnerabilitäts- und Resilienzkonstruktionen in öffentlichen Medien und bei Bewohnern in Hochwasserquartieren 20 Jahre nach der Oderflut von 1997. In: Heinlein, M./ Dimbath, O. (Hrsg.): Soziale Gedächtnisse der Katastrophe. Zur Theorie und Empirie des Katastrophenerinnerns und -vergessens. Wiesbaden: VS Springer, S. 21-50.

Bembnista, K., (2020): Zur Diskursiven Konstruktion von Grenzen, in: M. Dębicki, K. Dolińska, J. Kajta, Z. Kurcz, J. Makaro, N. Niedźwiecka- Iwańczak, I. Szlachcic [Hrsg.], Leksykon studiów nad granicami i pograniczami [Handbuch zur Grenzraumforschung], Scholar, S. 64-71.

Kamil Bembnista (Chair). From Shadows to the Scene: Border Narratives through Participatory Visual Methods inFrench-Luxembourg Border Towns. BeNeLux Geography Conference, Cath. University Leuven. April 10-12, 2026.

Kamil Bembnista. Border Museums. From Margins to Museums. Co-Constructing Border Narratives through Participatory Visual Methods, B-Shapes & NARDIV Conference: Narratives of Europe in uncertain times, March, 5-6 2026, Warsaw, Poland. 

Kamil Bembnista. Transiträumen ausgesetzt sein – Zur Soziomaterialität und Zeitlichkeit von Geflüchtetenunterkünften. 42nd Congress of the German Sociological Association, University of Duisburg-Essen, 22–26 Sept 2025.

Kamil Bembnista. Exposure to Uncertain Borderlands. Poly-Imaginaries of German-Polish Energy Borderlands. 18th International Congress of Historical Geographers, Shanghai, China, 14–18 July 2025.

Christophe Sohn; Kamil Bembnista; Jerome Jakob. Unpacking Border Visual Discourses – The Example of Basel Cross-Border Cooperation. BRIT Conference, 26–28 May 2025, Larnaca, Cyprus.

Kamil Bembnista. Border Exposures – Insights into Energy Borderlands. European Festival of Civic Education (Borders), Tirana, Albania, 11-15 Nov 2024.

Kamil Bembnista. Uncertainty and the Role of Borders in Energy Policy. 1st Congress of the Researchers of Borders and Borderlands, Wroclaw/Opole, Poland, 18-19 Sept 2024.

Kamil Bembnista. Socio-Materiality of Energy Borderlands. Disruptive Border Conference, Luxembourg, 4-7 Sept 2024.

Kamil Bembnista. Strategies of Energy Borderlands – Multidimensional Discursive Practices in Europe’s Energy Regions during the War in Ukraine. ESA RN12 Mid-term Energy and Society Network 6th International Joint Conference, Trento, Italy, 14-17 Sept 2023.

Kamil Bembnista. Strategies of Energy Borderlands – Multidimensional Discursive Practices in Europe’s Energy Regions during the War in Ukraine. 3rd World Conference, Association of Borderlands Studies, Campus Eilat, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, 13-17 Feb 2023.

Kamil Bembnista. Transitionsdiskurse grenzregionaler Energieräume. Eine vergleichende Perspektive des deutsch-französischen und deutsch-polnischen Grenzraums. Border Renaissance Conference, Saarbrücken, 4–5 Feb 2022.

Kamil Bembnista; Peter Ulrich; Ludger Gailing. Socio-Spatial Challenges in the Energy Transition in Border Regions. AEBR Cross-Border School “Governance of the Green Deal in Border Regions”, Arnhem, 20-24 Oct 2021.

Kamil Bembnista. Un/Certainty in Borderland Discourse and Practices: Discursive Constructions in German and Polish Newspapers. European Sociological Association Conference, Manchester, UK, 24-28 August 2019.

  • Editor for “Borders in Globalization Review”: Film Reviews.
  • Peer reviews for international journals, e.g., Journal of Borderland Studies, Borders in Globalization Review, Regional Studies

Spring Semester 2026: Stegreif: “Remembering Transformation: Oral History and Landscape Change in Wigancice/Weigsdorf”

Winter Semester 2023/2024: Stegreif: “Visual Approaches to the Sustainable Use of Village Churches in Brandenburg”

Winter Semester 2022/2023: Stegreif: Participatory Small-Town Development with Film (with Sunna Kovanen).