Doctoral Candidates
Marina de Castro Teixera Maia, M.A. Mestra em Planejamento Urbano e Regional (Univ. Federal do Rio Grande do Sul) | Doctoral Candidate
Marina Maia did her Bacharelado em Arquitetura e Urbanismo (Bachelor in Architecture and Urban Planning) at the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil). She completed her Mestrado em Planejamento Urbano e Regional (Master in Urban and Regional Planning) at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in the research line City, Culture and Politics.
Marina Maia has worked as a research assistant in a project comprising ecological sustainability and heritage management in urban planning (under Prof. Dr. José Almir Farias Filho). In her Master’s, she did research on urban history, axiology, and heritage policy (under Prof. Dr. Inês Martina Lersch). She also did her training at Brazil’s National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN), Fortaleza, Ceará, and at France’s National Directory of Cultural Affairs (Drac), Lyon, Rhônes Alpes. Marina Maia is a member of ICOMOS Brazil and her research interests lie in the fields of Cultural Heritage, Urban History, Planning, Cartography, Conceptual and Political History. Currently, she is working on her PhD thesis with Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz.
Contact
Marina de Castro Teixera Maia
Lehrgebäude 10
Erich-Weinert-Str. 1
03046 Cottbus
marina.deCastroTeixeiraMaia(at)b-tu.de
Office Hours
Only by appointment
Research Fields
Technology as Epistemic Culture
- Boundary Objects
- Conceptual History
Ethico-political Thinking
- Heritage Policy and Management
- Heritage Activism
- Cultural Rights
Images as Instrument
- Historical GIS
- Historical Cartography
Olivier Rossel Doctoral Candidate
Olivier Rossel completed his initial training at the Biel/Bern School of Applied Arts as a federally certified graphic designer. After several years of working as a freelance graphic designer, typographer and artist, Olivier Rossel was accepted for the Master Fine Arts at the Institute of Art at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW in Basel. His master thesis dealt with collective artistic publishing as well as the performativity of artworks in the context of mediation and exhibition. Olivier Rossel worked for several years at the Institute HyperWerk HGK FHNW as a lecturer for post-industrial design and process design. He developed modules, workshops, exhibitions as well as annual and bachelor diploma topics for the institute.
At the PhD Preparation Course at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Olivier developed his PhD project - supervised by Prof. Dr. Rachel Mader - on which he is currently working at the BTU-Cottbus. For his dissertation - which is supervised by Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz at the Chair of Technoscience Studies - Olivier is working with researchers from the MADMAX experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich and at CERN in Geneva. His research interests lie in the field of tension between practice-oriented art research, new materialisms and current particle physics dedicated to the search for dark matter.
Kontakt
Olivier Rossel
Lehrgebäude 10
Erich-Weinert-Str. 1
03046 Cottbus
Office Hours
Only by appointment
Research Fields
Technology as Epistemic Culture
- practice-based artistic research
- particle physics
- virtual and performative materialities
Ethico-political Thinking
- multiple realities
- new materialisms
- ethico-onto-epistem-ology
Future Narratives
- heterogeneous knowledge spaces
- situated knowledge and partial perspectives
- video-essay and sound-agencies
Jonathan Bill Doe, M.A. Doctoral Candidate
Jonathan Bill Doe majored in Philosophy of History at the University of Ghana and later received an M.A. in Museum and Heritage Studies from the same university. He conducted field work and participated in the Koma Land archaeological research project in Northern Ghana for his M.A. thesis under the supervision of Prof. Benjamin Warinsie Kankpeyeng. Jonathan Doe then completed methods courses in teaching history at University of Cape Coast, earning a Postgraduate Certificate in Education. He moved to BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg to pursue an M.A. in World Heritage Studies, completing his thesis on Archaeology of Wetlands Commons: Anlo Adaptive Management of Keta Lagoon under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz and Dr. Anca Prodan.
At BTU, Jonathan Doe has worked as a research assistant on the Environmental Humanities project at the Chair of Technoscience Studies. He has also worked with the Historical Society of Ghana and as a freelance tour guide and interpreter of Ghanaian heritage for both local and international audiences. He was a member of the USA’s National Science Foundation sponsored research project, Diaspora for Development, serving as a Willamette University Junior Scholar. Jonathan Doe has shared his ideas with professionals, academics and activists in Taiwan, Japan, USA and the Netherlands. He has been featured on The Ghanaian State public broadcasting and in radio documentaries, giving reflections on current affairs. Jonathan was awarded 2021 DAAD STIBET scholarship and presently KAAD scholarship holder. His is working on PhD topic, Urban Gardening and Sociotechnical Imaginary in Postcolonial Ghana with Prof. Dr. Astrid Schwarz at BTU.
Contact
Jonathan Bill Doe, M.A.
Lehrgebäude 10
Erich-Weinert-Str. 1
03046 Cottbus
Office Hours
Only by appointment
Research Fields
Technology as Epistemic Culture
- Theories of Technoscience
- Postcolonial Philosophical Fieldwork
Ethico-political Thinking
- Garden Practice in the Commons
- Decolonising Ecology
- Wetland Culture
Environmental Anthropology
- From Homo faber to Homo hortensis
Images as Instruments
- Urban Futures

Rahul Goswami, M.Sc PhD student
Rahul completed his undergraduate degree in nanotechnology and was subsequently accepted as a full scholar for his master's thesis at the Ian Wark Research Institute in South Australia. Rahul also worked as a PhD student at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay for two years, where he conducted research on the energy of grain boundary separation in nanomaterials, before deciding to switch academic paths to a more affective field.
Rahul completed his master's degree in environmental and resource management at BTU Cottbus. Professor Schwarz is supervising his thesis entitled "Gardening in order to afford future environmental stewards." In his thesis, Rahul aims to provide a decision-making framework for the holistic evaluation of energy and environmental policy alternatives. Our research will aim to improve the efficiency, inclusiveness, and legitimacy of environmental policy decisions through interdisciplinary research on energy transition.
Contact
Rahul Goswami
Teaching Building 10 Erich-Weinert-Str. 1 03046 Cottbus
goswarah@b-tu.de
Office hours
By appointment only