Academic staff

Moritz Kasper, M.Sc.

Profile

With interest in heterogeneous, socio-technical realities of the urban everyday, I am a doctoral researcher and lecturer at IPS. My PhD project explores practices, technologies, and infrastructures of private storage (water and electricity) in Nairobi, Kenya. I am also a member of the “Urban waterscapes and the pandemic” research project and an associated member of the integrated research training group at the DFG-funded collaborative research center “Re-Figuration of Spaces” (CRC 1265).

Before joining IPS, I worked for Goethe-Institut Kenya, HafenCity Hamburg GmbH, Samuel Hall, and others in research, design, cultural events, public relations, and editing. As an employee and freelancer, I have collaborated with international and local organizations (UNICEF, Africa Collect Textiles, etc.) in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, and Tanzania.

Moritz Kasper, profile picture — Moritz Kasper (2022)

CV

Academic education:

2014 – 2017: M.Sc. Urban Design, HafenCity University, Hamburg
2008 – 2011: B.Sc. Geographie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München

Work experience:

since 2020: Academic staff at IPS, Department of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund
since 2019: Freelance consultant/researcher, Berlin/Nairobi
2017 – 2018: Research Project Officer at Samuel Hall, Nairobi
2014 – 2016: Back Office Coordinator at HafenCity Hamburg GmbH
2012 – 2014: Project officer & online editor at Goethe-Institut e.V., Nairobi
2011 – 2012: Freelance researcher at GP Forschungsgruppe, Munich

Scholarships & awards:

BIS Architectuurwedstrijd 2016, BIS (Belgian Chamber of Architects), award for the interdisciplinary research & design project 'absence - discovering & designing in uncharted territory'
Möhrle-Preis 2016, HafenCity University, award and funding for the Urban Design thesis project 'From Expatropolis to Blurred Spaces'

Language skills:

German: mother tongue
English: business fluent

Research

Research areas:

Urban studies/planning in the global south, particularly (East) Africa
Heterogeneous infrastructures (water, energy, ...)
Postcolonial urban studies
Everyday practices and everyday urbanism
Networks, flows, mobilities

Research projects:

2021 – 2022: Urban waterscapes and the pandemic, DFG
Since 2020: Water tanks, jerry cans, power banks: Artefacts and practices of storage as part of heterogeneous infrastructure configurations in Nairobi (PhD project)

Publications:

Kasper, M. (2024): Mitungi as... thinking about urban space and infrastructure with the jerry can. In: Urban Geography. Available at: doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2024.2344952.
Schramm, S., Kasper, M., Bohlen, S. et al. (2023): Governing pandemic waterscapes: Covid-19 and Nairobi metropolitan services as co-catalysts of waterscape changes. In: Water Alternatives, 16(2), pp. 750–768.
Kasper, M.; Schramm, S. (2023): Storage city: Water tanks, jerry cans, and batteries as infrastructure in Nairobi. In: Urban Studies. Available at: doi.org/10.1177/00420980221144575.
Kasper, M.; Stroomer, E. (2021): Multiplying textile lives. Textile collection and recycling in urban Africa. In: AGATHÓN, 9, pp. 224–231. Available at: doi.org/10.19229/2464-9309/9222021.
Stroomer, E.; Kasper, M.; Andrew-Essien, E. (2020): Textile Collection for Re-Use and Recycling in Lagos, Nigeria – Context, Constraints, Opportunities – Final Report. Africa Collect Textiles.
Samuel Hall (co-authored) (2019): Dropping Out? A Participatory Exploration of Adolescent School Journeys in Zambia. UNICEF Zambia.
Samuel Hall (co-authored) (2018): Watoto Kwanza: Improving access to and quality of early childhood education in Zanzibar – Final Evaluation. Dubai Cares.
Kniess, B. et al. (2017): Plattentektonik – Wohnen im Spannungsfeld von Plan und Wirklichkeit. Hamburg: HafenCity Universität.
Samuel Hall (co-authored) (2017a): Coming Together: A critical analysis of key issues, actors and tools in the current global landscape of Family Tracing & Reunification. IKEA Foundation.
Samuel Hall (co-authored) (2017b): Youth Employment in Kenya: Literature Review. British Council.
Samuel Hall (co-authored) (2017c): Hope behind bars: the boys of the Kabul JRC. Children in Crisis.
Kasper, M. (2016a): The Yard: A space for everyone? In: ANZA (East African Architecture), 8.
Kasper, M.; Kengyel, N.; Colson, A.; Trianti, A. (2016b): Absence: Architectural reconfigurations in time and space. In: PLAT Journal, 6.

Teaching

Thesis supervision:

I am happy to supervise theses in German or English language, which are linked to one or more of the following points:

Everyday practices and everyday urbanism
Urban infrastructures
Cities in the global south, especially Sub-Saharan Africa
The application of topics/ discourses from the global south to spaces/ phenomena in the global north

This may inlcude a range of topics such as:

Heterogenous infrastructure configurations (water, electricity, data, ...)
Road-side economies and urban markets
Cultural and creative scenes and spaces
Urban identities and imaginations

Currently taught courses (WiSe 2024/25):

M.Sc. SPRING: „Comparative approaches for planners"

Selected past courses:

B. Sc. Spatial Planning: "Stadt und Infrastrukturen des 21. Jahrhunderts" (2024)
M.Sc. SPRING: M07 "Tenure (in)security in comparative perspective" (supervision) (2024)
M.Sc. SPRING: "Programme Planning and Project Management" (2022)
M.Sc. SPRING: M-Workshop Planning Cycle: "Analysis, Planning, Implementation" (2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23)
B.Sc. Spatial Planning: F02 - "There is and app for that": Intelligent urban mobility, its impact and future (2020/21)
M.Sc. Spatial Planning: M05 "Cities, health and infrastructure" (2020)