Department of Management, Society and Communication

My research investigates the links between global value chains, sustainability governance and economic development. It is primarily informed by political economy and political ecology approaches, interdisciplinary, and seeks to contribute to the fields of International Political Economy, Development Studies, and Economic Geography. My main interest lies in food and natural resource industries, and in their overlaps with conservation and different segments of the green economy. In my PhD project, I am conducting two case studies looking at Chile’s integration into the global wine and salmon value chains. The project is funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark and is part of a larger comparative research project between Chile and South Africa.

As a part of this, I did fieldwork in urban and rural areas of the Central and Southern regions of Chile, using different qualitative methods. Beyond my PhD project, I have fieldwork experience in the Sundarbans region in West Bengal, India, where I worked on local rice value chains and smallholder livelihoods. I have taught at Bachelor and Master level and supervised student projects, on topics both specifically and more broadly related to my research. I am German and work mainly in English but have also worked in Spanish and German.