Since October 2026, I have been a research fellow (postdoc) in the collaborative research project “Centre for Structural Change and Regional Development” (ZeStuR). In this role, I am affiliated with the two departments of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. I am also co-convenor of the Labour Geography Working Group within the Association of Geography Departments at German-speaking Universities (VGDH).

Prior to this, I worked as a research assistant in teaching and research at the Free University of Berlin. There, I completed my PhD in 2024 at the Institute of Geographical Sciences on the European ‘Solidarity Cities’ movement. My research focused on how urban actors in civil society, politics and public administration responded to exclusionary and crisis-ridden migration policies after 2015 and how they networked at national and transnational levels. In 2026, the Förderkreis für Raum- und Umweltforschung e. V. awarded my doctoral thesis the prize in the thematic competition ‘European Cohesion Policy in the Face of Multiple Upheavals’. During my time at the Free University of Berlin, I also served as a visiting scholar at Leeds University Business School, Aalborg University and the University of Westminster.

I also worked as a research assistant at Chemnitz University of Technology and as a local government adviser on the (digital) participation of young refugees at the German Children and Youth Foundation. During my studies, I focused primarily on human geography, migration research and European studies at the University of Passau, the University of Granada and the University of Osnabrück. Whilst undertaking a voluntary social year abroad, I lived and worked in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for a year.

• Geography of Work
• Critical Geography
• Critical Research on Migration and Border Regimes
• Social-Ecological Research on Transformation and Organisation
• Qualitative and Cartographic Methods

2026

Liebscher, Stephan / Cross, Hannah (forthcoming): Internationalising labour in renewable energy transitions. Capitalist value chains, migration management and the availability of mobile surplus labour (under review).

Liebscher, Stephan / Petersen, Emma / Pfaff, Nicolai (forthcoming): Higher education. In: Stefanie Hürtgen (ed.): Handbook of Labour Geography. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Liebscher, Stephan (2026): Review of Fabian Georgi (2025): ‘Borders and Freedom of Movement. A Critical Introduction’. In: Sozial.Geschichte 39/2026, 160–166 (Link).

Schmiz, Antonie / Liebscher, Stephan / Orth, Barbara (2026): Maps: In the Service of the Powerful. In: Atlas of Migration 2026. Flight, Hope, Future – Facts and Figures on People on the Move, 34–35 (Link).

2025

Liebscher, Stephan (2025): Cities of Solidarity in Europe. A progressive alternative to state migration control policies, between realpolitik and transformative ambitions. In: Eckardt, Franck (ed.): Handbook of Urban Sociology. Springer VS, Wiesbaden (peer-reviewed, link).

2024

Liebscher, Stephan (2024): Solidarity-Based Municipalism in the European Border Regime. From Urban Citizenship to the Counter-Hegemonic Project. In: *Moving the Social* 72(1), 35–60 (peer-reviewed, link).

Liebscher, Stephan (2024): Organising for System Change: “From the Sea to the City” and the Movement Ecology of Migrant Solidarity in Europe. In: *Antipode* 56(5), 1714–1733 (peer-reviewed, link) .

2023

Liebscher, Stephan (2023): Strategic Interventions in the European Border Regime. Realpolitik Approaches and Radical Ambitions in Struggles for Healthcare for People Deprived of Legal Status in Bremen and Leipzig. In: Journal of Migration Research, 3(2), 53–82 (peer-reviewed, Link).

Liebscher, Stephan (2023): Slow violence in the UK asylum system. An interview with Jonathan Darling on his book ‘Systems of Suffering: dispersal and the denial of asylum’. In: movements. Journal for Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies 7(2) (Link).

2022

Schmiz, Antonie / Liebscher, Stephan / Orth, Barbara (2022): Maps: In the service of the powerful. In: Atlas of Migration 2022. New data and facts about people on the move, 26–27 (Link).

Liebscher, Stephan (2022): Mapping as a critical practice. In: Böttger, Katharina (ed.): City Views: A Subjective Cartography of Frankfurt: Project Documentation for the Exhibition 22 October 2022–10 April 2023. Frankfurt am Main: Frankfurt Historical Museum, 86–88 (Link).

2021

Liebscher, Stephan (2021): The Solidarity-Based Reconstruction of the European Border Regime. A Site Visit. In: Hinterland 50: Utopias, 39–43 (Link).

Liebscher, Stephan (2021): Review of ‘Border Studies: A Handbook for Research and Study’, edited by Gerst, Dominik / Klessmann, Maria / Krämer, Hannes. In: Wissenschaft und Frieden 3/2021, 62–63.

2020

Liebscher, Stephan / Corvino, Juliana / Hetmank, Lisa (2020): Solidarity instead of racism in Chemnitz. Transformative crisis management in reflexive collaborations. In: Standort 44, 248–254 (peer-reviewed, Link).

Domann, Valentin / Liebscher, Stephan (2020): Research-based teaching in a polarised society – perspectives from applied critical geography. In: GW-Unterricht, 157(1) (peer-reviewed, link).

Liebscher, Stephan (2020): Laboratories as catalysts for a post-migrant society? Three theses on the exchange of experiences across laboratory formats. In: Hess, Sabine (ed.): What makes a city for everyone? Ideas and recommendations for a Göttingen based on solidarity. 12–15 (Link).

2018

Liebscher, Stephan (2018): Mapping safe passages: Real-time interventions at Europe’s maritime borders. In: kollektiv orangotango+ (ed.): THIS IS NOT AN ATLAS. A global collection of counter-cartographies. Bielefeld: transcript, 60–65 (Link).

2015

Liebscher, Stephan (2015): Arguing with maps: A powerful tool for migration control – and for resistance against it. In: Newsletter on Migration and Population, 4/15 (Link).