Dr. Hanna Hilbrandt

Biography

Hanna Hilbrandt is a Professor of Social Geography and Urban Studies at the University of Zurich (UZH), where she focuses on advancing a global and comparative research agenda addressing processes of marginalization, housing, and urban development in the context of globalizing financial markets and the climate crisis. Her research predominantly revolves around the urban everyday, investigating how global regulatory changes imprint urban life and incorporating regional case studies in Mexico, Switzerland, and Germany. Her book, "Negotiating Formalities: Housing, Governance, and the State in Berlin's Allotments," published in 2021, employs ethnographic methods to explore the negotiations surrounding housing and planning conflicts in Berlin's allotment gardens. Currently, she leads collaborative projects, including the "Responsible City" initiative and the SNSF Spirit project "Home-Debt Nexus," which examines how household debt intersects with housing development across Latin American contexts. Hilbrandt's work also addresses epistemological concerns in knowledge production, focusing on the intricacies of urbanization and global climate finance, with a keen interest in the spatial and material transformations that inform housing and urban sustainability discourse. She is a co-founder of collaborative initiatives in Switzerland and serves as editor-in-chief for the multilingual free open-access journal, Geographica Helvetica.

Research Interests

Experience