Nina Goldman, PhD

Human geographer and social science enthusiast.

About Me

I am a human geographer in a love affair with the social sciences. My interests are wide-ranging and not confined to disciplinary boundaries, so I’ll enjoy anything that will tweak my brain. In my research, I am concerned with the question of how an urban environment can affect the wellbeing and health of its inhabitants. My new passion project is called: A Geography of Loneliness. Reach out via the contact form, if you’re interested in collaborating.

I grew up in a bilingual household (English/German) which resulted in my becoming an expert in cultural misunderstandings with an odd love for peas.

When I’m not working on my research, I enjoy introducing young people to sailing, by taking them on week-long trips around the Mediterranean or Baltic Sea. I discovered sailing back in 2011. After a 4 month trip around Europe in 2014 I became part of the active skipper group who are also responsible for the maintenance of two sailing catamarans.

I will be giving a public talk in Basel on the 30th May 2024 entitled “Dialogabend über Einsamkeit. Gesellschaftliche Perspektiven, politische Impulse und nachbarschaftliche Ansätze”. It’s a free event, the organisers ask you to register here. The talk will be held in German.

My Projects

Reach out if you want to know more about a specific project or funding scheme.

Current

  • A Geography of loneliness (03/2023-02/2025). A collaboration project with two wonderful experts from the University of Manchester and Imperial College London. Building on existing work at ICL, expanding it to two European cities (Basel and Manchester) and adding a geographic and social perspective. This project is part of my PostDoc.Mobility Fellowship, which is funded by the SNSF for 24 months with CHF 110,330.  Recording of a public lecture held in May 2022 and the slide deck.
  • Consultation on an international Loneliness study for a large multinational cooperation (2023/24).
  • Commissioned by the World Health Organization to conduct a global review of loneliness policies (since 2024).

Past

  • Pilot project (09/2022-02/2023): Loneliness amongst University Students. As part of a research seminar in geography, I developed a questionnaire on this topic with my students, in which we first surveyed students at the University of Basel. The aim of our study is to find out how widespread loneliness and social isolation are among students at the University of Basel and what circumstances can lead to this. We would like to show how students can best be supported so that they feel less lonely or isolated.
  • Social media recruitment for research studies (09/2021-06/2022). Postdoctoral research unravels the benefits and challenges of using social media for research study recruitment based on insights from an interview study with multidisciplinary experts. This was part of an EU Horizon 2020-funded project called “TherVacB – A Therapeutic Vaccine to Cure Hepatitis B”.
  • The Taming of the Flu (08/2018-06/2021). Doctoral research within a large interdisciplinary project entitled “System analysis of seasonal influenza: virus transmission and evolution in the City of Basel”, which was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and involved several research groups.
  • Experimental erosion research (02/2017-02/18). Work with biochar-enriched substrates to see how they behave under different rainfall conditions and to test if the method of photogrammetry is able to quantify erosion rates.

Publications

Contact me if you are interested but have no access to the papers

Project: A Geography of Loneliness

  • Goldman N (2023): Thoughts on loneliness in the European city. European Urban Research Association. Conversation #58. here
  • Goldman N, Khanna D, El-Asmar ML, Qualter P, El-Osta A (accepted): Addressing Loneliness and Social Isolation in 52 countries: A Scoping Review of National Policies.

Project: Social media recruitment for research studies

  • Goldman N, Willem T, Buyx A, Zimmermann BM (2023): Practical Benefits, Challenges, and Recommendations on Social Media Recruitment: Multi-Stakeholder Interview Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research 25, e44587. here
  • Willem T, Starke G, Goldman N, Willem T, Buyx A, Zimmermann BM (submitted): “Broken by design”? Trustworthiness of social media platforms for clinical study recruitment – a qualitative, multi-stakeholder study.
  • Zimmermann BM, Willem T, Goldman N, Matthes N, Buyx A (submitted): Patient empowerment and social media recruitment for clinical research: A qualitative interview study.

Project: The Taming of the Flu

  • Goldman N, Reuther S (2023): Stadtgesundheit. Macht die Stadt krank? Regio Baseliensis 64(1), 3-15.
  • Goldman N (2021): The taming of the flu. Spatial patterns of influenza-like illness and the challenges and opportunities in immunisation on a city level. Doctoral Thesis, University of Basel, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. here
  • Egli A, Goldman N, Müller N, et al. (2021): High-resolution influenza mapping of a city reveals socioeconomic determinants of transmission within and between urban quarters. Submitted. Preprint here
  • Müller NF, Wüthrich D, Goldman N, et al. (2020): Characterising the epidemic spread of Influenza A/H3N2 within a city through phylogenetics. PLOS Pathogens 16(11), e1008984. here
  • Egli A, Saalfrank C, Goldman N, et al. (2019): Identification of influenza urban transmission patterns by geographical, epidemiological and whole genome sequencing data: Study protocol. BMJ open 9(8), 1-10. here
  • Goldman N, Saalfrank C, Schneider-Sliwa R (2019): Grippeerkrankungen und gesundheitsbezogenes Verhalten in Stadt-quartieren. Ausgewählte Resultate einer Haushaltsbefragung. In: Schneider-Sliwa R (ed.): Stadt, Region, Landschaft. Forschungsbeiträge der Basler Stadt- und Regionalforschung. Basel: Schwabe, 168-173. here

Project: Experimental erosion research

  • Fister W, Goldman N, Mayer M, Suter M, Kuhn NJ (2018): Testing of photogrammetry for differentiation of soil organic carbon and biochar in sandy substrates. Geographica Helvetica 74, 81-91. here

Some other random things…

Voice over for a video on lake sediment coring in Switzerland. Produced by the Geoecology research group at the University of Basel and the Office for Archaeology Canton Thurgau, Switzerland. EN version.

Teaching

Since 2017 I have taken students on excursions and developed my own courses. I highly enjoy interacting with students, which has been insightful and inspiring for my own research.

BA classes

MA classes

Excursions                        

  • Urban Health, Basel, 1 day, 2022
  • Conference visit: Swiss Geoscience Meeting, 2 days, 2022/23
  • Ecology in agriculture and forest management, Basel-Land, 1 day, 2021
  • Energy and sustainability, Basel, 1 day, 2020/21
  • Poverty, Basel, 1 day, 2017/18/19/20/21
  • Spatial transformations and space (re)uses, Zurich, 1 day, 2019/20/21
  • Urban development and spatial structures, Berlin, 3 days, 2018/19
  • City and port development, Basel, 1 day, 2019 
  • Trinational human geography excursion, Switzerland/Germany/France, for the Sun Yat-sen University (China), 14 days, 2018

Non-academic

  • Preparation course for the Swiss Certificate of Competence for Ocean Yachting, Verein Jugendprojekte, 2016/17/18/19

Photos

Ever wondered what research actually looks like? Or what we do during field excursions?

Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2023 Afterglow discussion
A snapshot of the Human Geography Afterglow event held during the Swiss Geoscience Meeting in Mendrisio. It's hard to capture a lively discussion, but I had a fabulous time discussing creative methods, participatory research ideas and principles, publication strategies and the general struggles of pursuing an academic career. Photo: Sven Daniel Wolfe 2023
Taking students to a conference
Taking students to the Swiss Geoscience Meeting in Lausanne 2022 to experience the conference atmosphere. Photo: N. Goldman 2022
Urban Health Excursion
Students discussing the implications of communicable diseases in an urban context during my urban health excursion. We had a wonderful morning in the park, followed by a little social experiment over lunch and more social science methodology practicing in the afternoon. Photo: Nina Goldman 2022
biogas plant
On a 1-day excursion we find out more about energy cycles and visit a local production plant that turns biomass into biogas and compost. Photo: Nina Goldman 2021
Combining sailing and science
Together with Dr. Roman Lehner, we collected ocean samples to detect and quantify microplastic. I skippered the wonderful 2 week-long trip from Sardinia to Genua, which was part of a Citizen Science Project (https://www.schweizforscht.ch/projekte/sail-explore). Photo: Nina Goldman 2021
Insights into forrest management
The forest area around Hölstein shows impressively what effects climate change can have on the tree population. Many beech and spruce trees have died due to the dry summers of 2018/19 and/or the bark beetle. The forest lab provides important data and insights to understand the response and resilience of individual trees to climate change. We discuss the question of how should the forest of the future look like. Photo: Nina Goldman 2021
Learning about ecological agriculture
Impressions from the excursion Ecology in Agriculture and Forest Management. The Wildenstein area is the ideal place to learn more about ecological agriculture. There are many different contract areas (e.g. hedgerows, wild fallow, extensive pastures, high stem plantations) in a small area, for which farmers can apply for subsidies. A nice example was the oak grove with up to 600 year old oaks, which provides habitats for rare beetles. Photo: Nina Goldman 2021
Excursion Energy and sustainability in Basel
On this Basler excursion we look at areas of energy production, waste disposal and urban planning and examine them for their sustainability. Here we're in the former bakery of a large wholesaler. It's currently being repurposed, the future uses are not yet known. Photo: Nina Goldman 2020
Energy and sustainability in Basel
On this Basler excursion we look at urban planning and examine locations for their sustainability. Here we're infront the former bakery of a large wholesaler. It's currently being repurposed. It already contains a gym hall for a primary school, a bouldering gym. Photo: Nina Goldman 2020
Zurich excursion on Spatial transformations
The topic of this excursion in Zurich was spatial transformations and spatial (re)uses in the city. Here, we are looking at a model of the area surrounding the University of Zürich, ETH and University Hospital which will undergo structural and spatial development soon. Photo: Nina Goldman 2019
Zurich excurion on Spatial transformations
At the beginning of the Zurich excursion I gave a short introduction to city planning, the role of politics in city planning and the idea of the 2000-Watt society. Here we're standing in the courtyard of the Swiss National Museum. Photo: Bertram Baumgarten 2020
3-day excursion in Berlin
Excursion in Berlin on the topic of urban development and spatial structures. Here we are in front of the Bundestag we're discussing the effects on Berlin as the capital as well as the significance and development of the tourism industry in Berlin. Photo: Nina Goldman 2019
Trinational Human Geography Excursion for the Sun Yat-sen University, China. A day in Basel exploring the old city and talking about the life-science cluster.
Excursion for the Sun Yat-sen University in Basel. Here we're talking about the importance of the life-science cluster for Basel and the greater region. Photo: Verena Maurer 2018
Trinational Human Geography Excursion for the Sun Yat-sen University
Excursion for the Sun Yat-sen University in St.Gallen. Here we're talking a break to admire the view of the old town before climbing down the steps to visit the famous Abbey Library, a UNESCO heritage site. Photo: Verena Maurer 2018
Jura field course
During the week long field course for BSc Geoscience students, Iand some colleagues were responsible for the Human Geography days. These included an excursion to the Mont Terri rock laboratory in St-Ursanne (Jura) to discuss the deep geological storage of radioactive waste. Photo: Nina Goldman 2019
Overwhelming return rate from our infleunza survey
Of the 30,000 distributed questionnaires we had an overwhelming return rate and as you can see, I and all involved were very happy with this. Photo: Claudia Saalfrank 2016
Distribution of 30,000 surveys
My PhD research was part of a large interdisciplinary project titled “System analysis of seasonal influenza: virus transmission and evolution in the City of Basel” funded by the Swiss NSF and spanning multiple research groups. Together with Claudia Saalfrank we organised the distribution of 30,000 questionnaires across Basel. The data obtained from this survey then provided the basis for my PhD research. Photo: Claudia Saalfrank 2016
EGU 2017 conference
Presenting my Masters thesis at the General Assembly of the European Geoscience Union in 2017. It was my first conference and I remember being insanely nervous. Photo: Alessandro Cicoira 2017
Working with the rainfall simulator
The syringes of the rainfall simulator had to be regularly inspected and declogged from lime deposits. Yes, it's as tedious as it looks and more often then not you'll get pricked when you don't pay enough attention. Photo: Marina Vegh 2017
Working with the rainfall simulator
For my MA thesis I conducted erosion experiments using a high-precision rainfall simulator together with Marius Mayer. We experienced a cold spring and hot summer days in the lab but were usually in good spirits listening to old school Hip Hop or the Queen. Photo: Nina Goldman 2017
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