Members of the Graduate School Cultures of the Alps are working on an academic qualification (doctorate or habilitation) that is related to the program of the Institute Cultures of the Alps. The Graduate School Cultures of the Alps offers researchers a structured training and supervision program and is led by an interdisciplinary faculty. There are regular internal supervision meetings and peer-to-peer feedback, colloquia, workshops and institute days. On the one hand, they promote the individual projects and their resonance in a broad public, and on the other hand, the exchange and synergies between the researchers and their specific competencies.
In the context of the transdisciplinary orientation of the institute, the involvement of practitioners and artists is also possible, creating synergies between academic and practice-oriented expertise. Institutionally, the qualifications are primarily anchored at the University of Lucerne, although other connections are also possible. The members regularly take part in workshops, colloquia, mentoring and peer-to-peer feedback and also participate in events and mediation formats as part of the forum.
Junior Research Fellow
Lisa Lee Benjamin is a curator and former landscape designer. She has founded two art spaces in Switzerland and previously worked as an independent international consultant on green infrastructure and cultural development. She holds a Master's degree in Transdisciplinary Arts with a focus on Alpine Cultures, a degree in Plant and Soil Science, and also in Permaculture Design (RMI).
Research Fellow
Dr Alona Bilokon is an expert for technology transfer and sustainable development. She is a mentor for the United Nations GCI Programme in Ukraine, as well as a board member of the Regional Acceleration Centre for Innovation, Technology and Start-ups in the Mykolaiv region. In 2011, Bilokon completed her Master's degree in international relations, in 2020 she obtained her PhD in history.
The Alps and Ukraine: Photovoltaics to strengthen regional and national energy self-sufficiency
Junior Research Fellow
Nils Widmer is writing his dissertation on skiing from a social and gender-historical perspective. From 2015 to 2021, he studied History and German Philology at the University of Basel. He worked as a research assistant at Swiss Sports History, as an assistant at the Department of History at the University of Basel, as a freelancer at Radio SRF and in educational projects.