Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and The Ethnographic Collection

Leon-Fabian Caspari, M.A.

Research Assistant


Leon-Fabian Caspari has been a research assistant at the Institute of Anthropology since January 2026. He is pursuing his doctorate as part of the research project “Climate Adaptation Management in Germany: Adapting to the Effects of Climate Change in Urban Lower Saxony” funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture Lower Saxony (MWK). His research focuses on municipal climate adaptation in Germany and examines the role of municipal climate adaptation managers in Germany and the scope of their actions to address climate risks. Leon examines the extent to which climate adaptation managers have the ability to achieve results through their actions, i.e., to implement efficient and, ideally, sustainable adaptation measures to the effects of climate change in their municipalities.

Leon studied anthropology and human geography in Göttingen, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and himself works as a climate adaptation manager for the city of Göttingen. A major focus is on adaptation to urban heat and heat waves in Germany. Leon is part of the EU Interreg Project COOL CITIES which aims to reduce heat stress by creating cool and comfortable outdoor spots and routes in cities.

As part of ENLIGHT from July 2021 to April 2024, he coordinated various Blended Intensive Programs (BIPs) together with Elfriede Hermann and in interdisciplinary teams with scientists from other ENLIGHT universities, which deal with the sociocultural impacts and responses to the climate crisis. The focus was on the interactions between climate mitigation, adaptation, and climate justice.

Anthropology of Climate Change (climate adaptation; resilience; disasters); Anthropology of Policy and Expertise; (climate adaptation policies, urban governance, critical policy research); Urban Anthropology (social infrastructures, urban heat, practices of care).


Europe, especially Germany