Sonja Dümpelmann

I am a historian of (urban) landscapes and the built environment. My research and writing sit squarely within the environmental and urban humanities. It focuses on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is informed by questions of race, class, and gender as well as visual and other forms of representation. Recent book publications include the award-winning Landscapes for Sport: Histories of Physical Exercise and Health (ed., Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2022) and Seeing Trees: A History of Street Trees in New York City and Berlin (Yale University Press, 2019).
Before joining the faculty at LMU Munich as Professor and Chair of Environmental Humanities I taught for almost twenty years in the United States, most recently at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design where I was a full tenured professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture for which I also served as Acting Chair for two semesters. For more information, check out my website: sonjaduempelmann.com. I will join the program as advisor in October 2025.