Dr Johannes Michael Luetz

Adjunct Associate Professor Johannes M. Luetz (BA/USA, MBA/Germany, Ph.D./Australia) is a social scientist and specialist in research that examines ecological concerns from spiritual perspectives. Raised between Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Germany, and Australia, he has lived and worked across countries and continents, conducting interdisciplinary humanitarian research at the science-faith, interfaith, and science-policy interface. His research entails consultancies in Asia-Pacific ($183,600+), commissioned advocacy reports for UN Framework Convention on Climate Change meetings, a technical review of early warning capacity after 18 months of field testing in 13 countries following the 2011 Horn of Africa food crisis, and thought leadership as a researcher, editor, and editor-in-chief on major international edited volumes. JML has advanced the field of faith-engaged sustainable development and climate change adaptation, communicating fresh perspectives on how religion may enable or disable environmental conservation in different contexts. His conceptual and empirical research has grappled with majority and minority religions, including traditional worldviews and Indigenous spirituality, examining associations and affinities between faith and environmental sustainability. JML has mentored HDR candidates and led 21 peer-reviewed student publications as a corresponding author. He is the winner of various grants, prizes, scholarships, awards and distinctions, including the 2023 AC HDR Supervision Excellence Award, which recognises AC’s most outstanding principal supervisors.

He has served on major international editorial projects as Editor, Section Editor, or Editor-in-Chief, including Interfaith Engagement Beyond the Divide (Springer, 2023), Beyond Belief—Opportunities for Faith-Engaged Approaches to Climate-Change Adaptation in the Pacific Islands (Springer, 2021), Quality Education: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Springer, 2020)—the largest editorial project on sustainable development ever undertaken, and the world’s most comprehensive publication on the United Nations SDGs—, and the Handbook on Climate Change Management: Research, Leadership, Transformation (Springer, 2021). With 229 chapters and 500+ authors, and spread over a set of 6 volumes, the ‘Handbook’ is the largest non-publicly funded editorial project on climate change adaptation ever produced. It was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021.

Current appointments, academic affiliations, and journal editorships include: Johannes is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law and Society at UniSC, Associate Professor of Sustainability and Religion, Director of Research Development, and HREC Chair at Alphacrucis University College, Deputy Editor International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management (Emerald), and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Discover Sustainability (Springer), Christian Higher Education (Routledge Taylor & Francis), and Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (nature portfolio).