Dr Simon Meisch

Head of Ethics and Education

Dr Simon Meisch works in the research group Ethics and Education, where he coordinates interdisciplinary ethics teaching. He studied Political Science and Modern German Literature at the Universities of Tübingen and Edinburgh, and earned a PhD in Political Science. After completing his studies, he worked at the IZEW, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS, Potsdam), and the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT, University of Bergen, Norway), focusing on ethical and epistemological questions. He is a guest researcher at the SVT (Bergen).

Areas of Expertise

Approaches and methods of Application-oriented Ethics
Concepts and conceptions of sustainable development
Didactics of ethics, education for sustainable development, peace education
Post-normal Science
The role of the humanities in the discourse on sustainable development; environmental humanities
Water ethics, ethics in water research and water governance
Conceptions of water security; fair water security

Career

February-April 2025	Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships within the Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre (University of Leeds)
March 2021-February 2022	Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (University of Bergen)
Since 2020	IZEW, research group Ethics and Education
2018/2019	Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam
2013-2017	IZEW, Head of Junior Research Group “Ethics of Science in the Research for Sustainable Development”
2013	PhD in Political Science, University of Tuebingen
Winter term 2010/2011	IZEW: Scientific Coordinator (Stand-In for Thomas Potthast)
2009-2012	IZEW, Project “Value Isobars. The Landscape and Isobars of European Values in Relation to Science and New Technology”
2009	IZEW, Project: “Verantwortung wahrnehmen”
2007-2009	IZEW, Managing Office
2005-2007	State Postgraduate Scholarship Programme, Baden-Württemberg
2003-2005	IZEW, Project: “State-wide Academic Supplementary Programme for the Introduction of the EPG”
2000/2001	DAAD annual scholarship, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)
1996-2003	Study of Political Science and Modern German Literature at the University of Tuebingen

Projects

Publications (selection)

A) Monography

Meisch, S. (2014): Devolution in Schottland. Institutionelle Entwicklung zwischen Pfadabhängigkeit und graduellem Wandel (Baden-Baden: Nomos), 274 S.

B) Editorship

Meisch, S.P., Schmidt, J.J. (eds., 2026): Ethics and Planetary Boundaries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Meisch, S., Müller, U. (eds., 2026): Streiten – aber richtig! Zum Umgang mit Kontroversen in Schule und Unterricht (Leverkusen: Barbara Budrich), 207 pp.
Meisch, S., Brand, C., Müller, U. (eds., 2022): Ethik in Serie – Staffel 2 (Tübingen: Tübingen Library Publishing), 220 pp.
Bossert, L., Voget-Kleschin, L., Meisch, S. (eds., 2020): Damit gutes Leben mit der Natur einfacher wird. Suffizienzpolitik für Naturbewahrung (Marburg: Metropolis), 280 pp.
Meisch, S., Jäger, U.; Nielebock, T. (eds., 2018): Erziehung zur Friedensliebe. Annäherungen an ein Ziel aus der Landesverfassung Baden-Württemberg (Baden-Baden: Nomos), 330 pp.
Meisch, S., Hofer-Krucker Valderrama, S. (eds., 2018): Extremwetter. Konstellationen des Klimawandels in der Literatur der frühen Neuzeit (Baden-Baden: Nomos), 160 pp.
Nielebock, T., Meisch, S., Harms, V. (eds., 2012): Zivilklauseln in Forschung, Lehre und Studium. Hochschulen zum Frieden verpflichtet (Baden-Baden: Nomos), 344 pp.

C) Publikations with peer review

Meisch, S., Bremer, S., Dunn-Sigouin, E., Hempel, M. (2026): Adapting the social practice of beekeeping to a changing climate. In: Ambio - A Journal of Environment and Society (online first).
Meisch, S. (2024): Epistemic justice: An ethical basis for transdisciplinary and transformative sustainability research. In: GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 33(4), 381-388.
Bremer, S., Meisch, S.P., Hempel, M., Dunn-Sigouin, E. (2024): Adapting seasonal beekeeping patterns in western Norway. In: Time & Society 35(1) 45-72.
Meisch, S. (2024): Extended peer communities: Creating good and fair knowledges. In: Futures 163, 103455.
Meisch, S., Bremer, S., Young, M.T., Funtowicz, S. (2022): Extended Peer Communities: Appraising the contributions of tacit knowledges in climate change decision-making. In: Futures 135, 102868.
Bruns, A., Meisch, S., Ahmed, A., Meissner, R., Romero-Lankao, P. (2022): Nexus disrupted: Lived realities and the water-energy-food nexus from an infrastructure perspective. In: Geoforum 133, 79-88.
Hanusch, F., Meisch, S. (2022): The temporal cleavage: the case of populist retrotopia vs. climate emergency. In: Environmental Politics 31(5), 883-903.
Meisch, S., Hofer-Krucker Valderrama, S., Lang, S. (2022): Klimawandel im Literaturunterricht, in: Digitale Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung. Herausforderungen und Perspektiven für die Hochschulbildung, ed. by Weselek, J., Kohler, F., Siegmund, A. (Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer), 179-191.
Bremer, S., Glavovic, B., Meisch, S., Schneider, P., Wardekker, A. (2021): Beyond rules: How institutional cultures and climate governance interact. In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 12(6), e739.
Kalfagianni, A., Meisch, S. (2020): Epistemological and ethical understandings of access and allocation in Earth System Governance: a 10-year review of the literature. In: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 20, 203-221.
Meisch, S., Stark, M. (2019): Recirculation Aquaculture Systems: Sustainable Innovations in Organic Food Production? In: Food Ethics 4(1), 67-84.
Meisch, S. (2019): I Want to Tell You a Story. How Narrative Water Ethics Contributes to Re-theorizing Water Politics. In: Water 11(4), 631.
Bremer, S., Meisch, S. (2017): Co-production in climate change research: reviewing different perspectives. In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 8(6), 1-22.
Leese, M., Meisch, S. (2015): Securitising sustainability? Questioning the ‘water, energy and food-security nexus’. In: Water Alternatives 8(1), 584-598.
Bergleiter, S., Meisch, S. (2015): Certification Standards for Aquaculture Products. Bringing together the Values of Producers and Consumers in Globalised Organic Food Markets. In: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28(3), 553-569.

D) Publikations without Peer-Review

Meisch, S. (2025): Memes and the Literary Classroom Conversation—On Dealing with Heterogeneity in Interdisciplinary Ethics Classes. In: Educating for Ethics, Critical Thinking and Responsible Action in the Anthropocene. Climate, Food Systems, and Democratic Challenges, ed. by Jelenkovic Moreno, Aline et al. (Bilbao: EHU Press), 40-57.
Meisch, S., Hofer-Krucker Valderrama, S. (2024): Das literarische Unterrichtsgespräch in digitalen Räumen – mit Literatur über Klimawandel sprechen. In: Literaturvermittlung im virtuellen Raum – Beiträge zur digitalen germanistischen Hochschullehre, ed. by Eckart, M. et al. (Berlin [u.a.]: Peter Lang), 103-126.
Meisch, S. (2024): Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung im altsprachlichen Unterricht. In: Altsprachlicher Unterricht und Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung, ed. by Polleichtner, W. (Speyer: Kartoffeldruck), 11-40.
Meisch, S., Hofer-Krucker Valderrama (2024): Am Beispiel von Martha. In: z.B. Zeitschrift zum Beispiel 6, 121-139.
Meisch, S. (2024): I have bee-s/-n up there, in: Changing Seasonality: How Communities are Revising their Seasons, ed. by Bremer, S. & Wardekker, A. (Berlin & Boston: de Gruyter), 187-191.
Müller, U., Meisch, S. (2023): Ethik in der Schulpraxis: Klassenleiterstunde zum Thema Cybermob-bing, in: Klasse 6b. Eine Unterrichtswoche. Bildungswissenschaftliche und fachdidaktische Analysen, ed. by Syring, M., Beck, N.; Bohl, T., Tesch, B. (Tübingen: Tübingen University Press), 349-359.
Meisch, S. (2022): Dark – Erzählen ‚insight out‘, in: Ethik in Serie – Staffel 2, ed. by Meisch, S., Brand, C. Müller, U. (Tübingen: Tübingen Library Publishing), 45-60.
Hofer-Krucker Valderrama, S., Meisch, S. (2018): Extremwetter: Konstellationen des Klimawandels in der Literatur der Frühen Neuzeit. In: Extremwetter. Konstellationen des Klimawandels in der Lite-ratur der frühen Neuzeit, ed. by Meisch, S., Hofer-Krucker Valderrama, S. (Baden-Baden: Nomos), 9-64.
Meisch, S. (2017): What is and to what end do we study Water Ethics? Lessons for the Water Ethics Charter, in: Global Water Ethics: Towards a Water Ethics Charter, ed. by Ziegler, R., Groenfeldt, D. (London: Routledge), 37-56.

Current Teachings

Summer term 2026

»Demokratisch wie die Bienchen? – Lernspiele für den fächerübergreifenden Unterricht« [As Democratic as the Bees? – Designing and Developing Learning Games], together with Esther Fink (Arbeitsstelle Hochschuldidaktik), Emma Ćišić, Valerie Weber, Universität Tübingen, Bildungswissenschaftliches Studium.
»Bienen und die ökologischen Krisen« [Bees and the Ecological Crises]. Course, together with Marco Elischer (proBiene – Freies Institut für ökologische Bienenhaltung), University of Tübingen, Education Science Studies.
»Nachhaltige Entwicklung in der Kulturlandschaft erfahren« [Exploring Sustainable Development in Cultural Landscapes]. Course, together with Carina Betz, University of Tübingen, Studium Oecologicum.
»Bees, Sustainability and Society«. Course, University of Tübingen, Tübingen-International & European Studies (T-IES), Summer School June.

Winter term 2026/2027

»Klassiker lesen: Kants Schrift Zum ewigen Frieden« [Reading the Classics: Kant's Toward Perpetual Peace], University of Tübingen, Institute of Political Science.
»Applied Ethics in Public Policy«, University of Tübingen, Institute of Political Science.
»Demokratisch wie die Bienchen? – Lernspiele für den fächerübergreifenden Unterricht« [As Democratic as the Bees? – Designing and Developing Learning Games], together with Esther Fink (Arbeitsstelle Hochschuldidaktik), Emma Ćišić, Valerie Weber, Seminar, University of Tübingen, Educational Sciences Programme.
»Ethik in Serien – Heartstopper« [Ethics in Series – Heartstopper]. Seminar, University of Tübingen, Educational Sciences Programme.
»Wasser fließt durch alle Schulfächer: Themen und Herausforderungen« [Water flows through all school subjects: themes and challenges], together with Maximilian Hansche, Seminar, University of Tübingen, Educational Sciences Programme.
»Sustainable Development: History, Concepts, Policies«. Seminar, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen-International & European Studies (T-IES), Doshisha EU Campus European Studies Program 2026.

Activities

since 2011: Member of the Advisory Board for Sustainable Development, University of Tübingen
since 2016: Editor-in-Chief of the Newsletter of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics (EurSafe)
since 2019: Member of the EurSafe Board
since 2023: Chairman of the Board of the Friends of Berghof Peace Education / Institute for Peace Education and since 2019 Board Member
2013–2016: Co-speaker of the German Network of Early Career Scientists in Future Earth