Dear Readers,

This winter, we have put together another exciting edition of the IEE newsletter. A major highlight this year was the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Master of Arts in Development Management (MADM). Almost 100 alumni, current students, former staff members, and partners returned to Bochum for a week-long anniversary conference filled with practitioner-led workshops, panel discussions, networking activities, and opportunities to reconnect across generations. In this winter edition, Dr. Gabriele Bäcker and Leonie Grunau provide an overview of the celebrations, reflecting on the evolution of the programme, the global reach of its alumni community, and the many individuals and institutions who have shaped MADM’s success over the past quarter century.

Our current cohort of MADM students was equally active: In this issue, you can read about their field excursion to Cologne-Ehrenfeld, guided by Phillip Riedel, which brought students into direct contact with urban development, gentrification dynamics, and questions of spatial justice. You will also find a report on the joint study excursion to the Gustav Stresemann Institute in Bonn. Organised in cooperation with the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, and coordinated by Simon Rahn and Phillip Riedel, the excursion offered students valuable insights into German development cooperation and opportunities to network with peers from other universities.
Being an important part of the postgraduate program, almost all students in the present cohort conducted field research abroad after their second MADM semester. In this edition, MADM Student, Mary Manlangit, reflects on her expert interviews in Singapore and Indonesia, examining ASEAN economic integration dynamics. Jonas Kuhnhardt reports on his research on energy infrastructure and local ownership structures in southern Tanzania. A deeply moving contribution comes from Muzahida Tasbiha, who conducted sensitive, ethically challenging interviews with young Rohingya women in Bangladesh as part of her research on educational trajectories. In addition, Ani Davtyan shares her internship experience at the German Red Cross headquarters in Berlin, offering insight into humanitarian information management and interna-tional cooperation processes.

Beyond student activities, we are pleased to share a contribution from IEE staff member, Ann-Sophie Rinne, whose fieldwork in North-ern Ghana provided important insights into climate-related dry spells, agricultural vulnerability, and collaborative survey preparation with Ghanaian partners as part of the DecLaRe project.

This year also saw significant real-world im-pact arising from the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) course, taught by Dr. Britta Niklas. Two project plans designed by MADM students, in cooperation with the Mthimkhulu Village Centre in South Africa, were implemented: a community children’s library and the “Kick & Cook” youth football and nutrition programme. The article in this issue shows how classroom-based project development can lead to concrete community benefits.

At the doctoral level, 2025 marked new beginnings and important achievements. The PhD IDS programme welcomed two new scholarship holders, while we also celebrated successful PhD defences, including those of Laura Hofmann and ADAPTED fellow, Muhammad Saleh. The ADAPTED consortium also continued its activities beyond its official funding period. In his coordinator’s report, Simon Rahn provides an overview of ongoing publications, conference activities and preparations for future collaborative initiatives. To complement this, Muhammad Saleh offers a personal reflection on his doctoral journey, tracing experiences across Germany, France, the Netherlands and South Africa, illustrating the intellectual and personal growth that marked his time in the programme.

As we enter 2026, our commitment to strengthening international cooperation and supporting the academic growth of our stu-dents and researchers remains unchanged. We hope that this edition offers an inspiring overview of the work being done across our community.

We wish all our readers a peaceful holiday season and a prosperous new year!

Anyone interested in joining the IEE Newsletter mailing list is warmly invited to subscribe here: https://lists.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/mailman/listinfo/iee-news.

Sincerely,

Wilhelm Löwenstein

Please find the Newsletter in this PDF file.