Staff

Lena Schellhammer joined bicc as a PhD Researcher in March 2026 within the project Decolonial Epistemologies?, where she focuses on the Jordanian component of the research. She holds a bachelor's degree in social and political science from the University of Bielefeld (2016) and a master's degree in Societies, Globalization and Development from the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhem University of Bonn (2020). In her master’s thesis, she analyzed humanitarian access negotiations with non‑state armed groups designated as terrorist groups and examined the impact of counter‑terrorism legislation on these negotiations using the case of north‑western Syria. 

Before starting her PhD, Lena spent six years working in the humanitarian sector on Syria, primarily as Program Manager overseeing and managing the Syria portfolio; key milestones were the NGO-transition (strategically and operational set-up) from Gaziantep, Turkey to Syria after the political shift at the end of 2024 and the earthquake response in Turkey and Syria in 2023. During this time, she was based in Gaziantep (Turkey), Germany and recently inside Syria (Damascus/ Aleppo).