Nitsan Shakked
PhD student
Nitsan Shakked is a PhD researcher at the Hertie School. She holds an M.A. in Global Affairs from Yale University, an M.Sc. in Environmental Geosciences from Tübingen University, and a B.Sc.in Earth Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her Ph.D. project lies at the intersection of marine governance, technology and society, and the future of energy sustainability. It models and predicts geopolitical challenges, transboundary conflicts, as well as policy, material, and technological alternatives to emergent Deep Sea Mining (DSM) ventures. While mineral stores are fast depleting on land, the seabed is increasingly produced as the alternative source needed to support the growing metal demands of the world’s energy transition and digital revolution. However, up-to-date, just, and sustainable DSM policy is lacking, even as mining companies rush to explore extraction options. The project investigates the entanglements of DSM with biodiversity, environmental crisis, and indigenous rights. It layers Big Data, material flow analysis, Industrial Ecology, and hard scientific research, against ethical and critical theory considerations (such as intergenerational equity, postcolonial environmental justice, and more-than-human stakeholders), to guide the next frontier of marine governance for a just environmental stewardship.
Prior to joining Hertie, Nitsan directed the Institute of the Environment at Tufts University in Boston, headed developmental projects sponsored by the E.U., GIZ and Relief International, co-founded an award-winning social startup, and worked as a consultant for the USAID and the U.S. Department of State on various environmental and human-security projects.
Image credit: Annette Hornischer