My doctoral research, which I carried out on a part-time basis, focused on “Staging urban change, reimaging the city: the politics of place marketing in the ‘New Berlin’ (1989-2004)”. It was funded by several small travel grants from the EU-funded Research Training Network ‘Urban Europe’ (2004), the Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies (2001), the University College London Graduate School (2000), the British Council, France & Entente Cordiale Foundation (1998-1999).