Dr. Julia M. Blocher is a Project Lead, leading the FutureLab’s contributions to the project “HABITABLE: Linking Climate Change, Habitability and Social Tipping Points: Scenarios for Climate Migration” (EU Horizon 2020). This project is the largest research initiative ever to be funded by the European Commission on climate change and migration. The project combines qualitative and quantitative methods in six case study countries in Africa and Asia.

Prior to joining PIK, Dr. Blocher was a Project Manager at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research in New York (UNU-CPR), a think tank within the UN system. At PIK, she previously contributed to the “East Africa, Peru, India Climate Capacities” (EPICC) and the “Governance of Climate Change and Human Mobility” projects. She is also a youth advocate, and serves as President of the International Youth Federation (IYF).

Dr. Blocher’s main research interests are in the interaction of political, social, and environmental factors in human mobility outcomes – migration, displacement and planned relocations – in the context of climate change. As part of her work, she is interested in social and political factors contributing to resource-based tensions and conflict dynamics. She has conducted studies on environment, climate change, and human mobility linkages in the Pacific small island states and in the East and Horn of Africa (Tanzania and Ethiopia). Her previous work has included field-based research for the International Organization for Migration (IOM)-led ‘Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy’ (MECLEP) and for the FP7 Consortium ‘High-End cLimate Impact eXtremes’ (HELIX) projects.

She has recently lectured at MCI Innsbruck, Sciences Po Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité (Paris XIII) and Addis Ababa University. She previously worked for the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC-NRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She holds  a Ph.D. in Political Science from Humboldt University in Berlin, a Master 2 from Sciences Po Paris, Bachelor’s degree with distinctions from Johns Hopkins University. She speaks English, French, and Italian as well as some German and Swahili.