Adresse visiteur
Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains
Avenue Jeanne, 44
Bâtiment S
Bureau S12.131
1050 Bruxelles
Belgique
Adresse courrier
Université libre de Bruxelles
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 50 - CP 124
1050 Bruxelles
Belgique
I am a PhD student and member of the comparative research project Flourishing Seeds: Value Creation and Relatedness in AgroBiodiversity Hotspots (ERC Starting Grant SeedsValues 950220) under the supervision of Olivia Angé.
I hold a BA in Social and Cultural Anthropology and Arts, Music, Theatre from Ludwig-Maximilian-University Munich as well as an MSc in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Areas of interest
Value, political economy, sustainable/alternative food systems, social ecology, flourishing & well-being
Research
My research is situated in the uplands of Luang Prabang in the Lao PDR, one of the richest countries in biodiversity of rice. In recent times, the uplands have undergone major changes resulting in heterogenous landscapes of competing and intersecting (development) projects, livelihoods, and interests of various actors. The global loss of (agro-)biodiversity has fuelled questions of global food security and sparked biotechnological interest in the genetic wealth of native varieties of staple foods – both with respect to their conservation and the development of and promotion of intensive farming with ‘improved’ seeds. Yet, (native) rice varieties take on manifold meanings in the life of the people who cultivate and consume them, and who have contributed to maintaining the ecologies of their flourishing. My research examines how their everyday practices navigate, challenge, reproduce, or generate the values ascribed to specific varieties as well as the changing conditions for the cultivation of rice. My approach is grounded in feminist Marxist takes on the economy as well as in anthropological value and exchange theory.