Dr. Kristina Dietz will take over as head of the Department of International Relations with a focus on Latin America in the summer semester 2023. She studied at the University of Hanover and received her doctorate in political science from the University of Kassel in 2010 on the topic of "Complex Vulnerabilities. Political and socio-ecological dimensions of climate vulnerability". She spent many years researching and teaching at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. From 2022 to 2023, she was Professor of International Development at the University of Vienna.

Kristina Dietz teaches and researches on the challenges of socio-ecological transformation from a global perspective with a regional focus on Latin America, currently on the significance of the global energy transition. She also focuses on international environmental, climate and raw materials policy, political ecology, social inequalities, democracy and the transformation of rural areas in the context of globalization. In Kassel, she will contribute her academic and regional experience to the consolidation and expansion of Latin American research and to research on transformation towards sustainability.