News
On 18 September 2026, Margrethe Jonkman, Aurora President and President of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, visited Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC) to meet with its newly-elected president, Pierre Wolkenstein.
Following an hour-long discussion with Pierre Wolkenstein, Margrethe Jonkman then met with the Aurora Office at UPEC. During this meeting, several members of the Aurora Office presented on some of the key topics within the Aurora 2030 programme:
- How the Aurora Office at UPEC works in close collaboration with internal academics, staff and students within the university, as well as the alliance, presented by Ana Megrelishvili, Aurora Project Manager
- The past, present and future of research actions, academic collaboration and community building within Aurora, presented by Matthias Beekmann, Aurora Research Council President
- How communication is key to create awareness, enhance visibility and catalyse societal impact, presented by Aniza Pourtauborde, Head of Communications for Strategic Projects
- Cooperation between UPEC, University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), and other Aurora universities on research, education and European projects related to the theme “Healthy Urban Transitions”, presented by Marcus Zepf, Professor at Ecole d’Urbanisme de Paris of UPEC and Co-director of the E-City programme.
Healthy Urban Transitions
The presentations opened conversations about the diversity of best practices in different Aurora universities. During the exchange, there was a particular emphasis on the partnership between UPEC and UDE on the theme of Healthy Urban Transitions.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic and the creation of the E-city programme by Isabelle Coll and Marcus Zepf, both professors and researchers at UPEC, healthy cities have become a central concern in achieving a fair and sustainable transition in European cities. The “Healthy Urban Transitions” joint Master programme initially created between by Barbara Buchenau, professor and researcher at UDE, and Marcus Zepf, is about processes of self-renewal, as well as communicative and narrative interdependencies, that can either have a positive or negative impact on people’s health.
The approach brings together narrative research, comparative research on social space and intersectional health research. Relying on shared courses modules, the two universities created a new study programme that brings together 30 UPEC students and 20 from UDE each year to analyse challenges in healthy transitions. The “Healthy Urban Transitions” joint Master programme now aims to expand the partnership to other universities within the Aurora alliance.