Diego Silva is an economist/anthropologist and works as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre of International Environmental Studies (CIES) at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID), in Geneva. His work is located at the intersection of science and technology studies, environmental and economic anthropology, and agrarian studies. His current research agenda includes: 1) the socio-technical analysis of seed commodity networks and the rural conflicts surrounding the deployment of agricultural innovations in Latin America (FNS Postdoc project); 2) the anthropological study of climate change mitigation in agriculture through the emergent knowledge and practices of environmental accounting (PI: prof. Shaila Seshia Galvin); and 3) the political ecology of the EU energy transition with a focus on the lithium battery production chain, linking Latin American suppliers of lithium minerals with the European lithium battery industry (co-coordinator for the project led by prof. Marc Hufty).

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Latin America, Colombia and Argentina

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Bachelor in Sociology, Master in Social Anthropology and PhD student in Social Sciences at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology Western Regional Unit (CIESAS-Occidente) in the research line Environment and Society. His current research discusses, from a political ecology perspective, the unequal production of space in the peripheries, the scarcity and micro-privatization of water and water suffering.

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Friedrich Neu is a researcher and lecturer at the Chair of Geography of Global Change at Freiburg University, with a teaching focus on climate change adaptation through excursions mainly to Switzerland and Ghana and through seminars scrutinizing adaptation processes in the Global South. His current PhD research is grounded in the interplay of anthropogenic climate change and human-induced environmental change in delta regions and particularly examines the adaptation to subsequent coastal erosion and inundation through state-led resettlement. Therein, a case study in Ghana’s Volta River Delta is used for empirical research. He applies strands of political ecology and justice perspectives to advance the recently created research field of Critical Geography of Resettlement within the spatial boundary of delta regions. Friedrich Neu’s main research area is in sub-Saharan Africa with a special focus on formerly Rwanda and currently Ghana.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Coastal Regions, Global South, Ghana

Website

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Miss Salome Gikonyo is a young researcher and environmentalist specializing in sustainability, transformative research and environmental management. She is an award-winning scholar of the leadership for Africa scholarship Award issued by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) January 2023. She is currently pursuing master’s degree in Sustainability at Kiel university Germany. She has served as a research assistant at the UNESCO Chair for Higher Education Development for a Green Economy and Sustainability. In her role she has greatly contributed into research and co-authored papers in areas of circularity, green economy, sustainability and climate change. She has engaged in lot of conferences and made recommendable contributions; she was among the attendees of the European Conference on African Studies that was held in cologne Germany June 2023. Her passion and ambitions contribute greatly in the achievement of sustainable development goals. She is a true example that young people are capable of taking the stewardship role in creating a sustainable future for all.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Africa

Irmak Ertör is an assistant professor in the Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Bogazici University, Istanbul. Before her current position, she was working in the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) as a post-doctoral researcher in the ERC-funded ENVJUSTICE project focusing on global fisheries conflicts and environmental justice. She holds a BS in Economics and an MA in Modern Turkish History from Bogazici University, Turkey. She has been a Marie Curie (ITN) early stage researcher of the ENTITLE project (European Network of Political Ecology) and completed her PhD on the «Political Ecology of Marine Finfish Aquaculture in Europe» in ICTA, UAB. Currently, she is a member of the Cost Action on Ocean Governance and investigates socio-environmental conflicts and social movements of fisher communities, food sovereignty and environmental justice.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Turkey and Mediterranean

Political Ecology blog (of the former ENTITLE group)

Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History 

Wendy Chávez is an economist (Polytechnic School of Guayaquil, Ecuador) and holds a master’s degree in public administration (New York, USA) and a master’s degree in human settlements (KU Leuven, Belgium). She is a junior researcher and PhD student in Political and Cultural Change at the Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn. Her thesis project is about conflicts caused in the small-scale fisheries due to the large-sale fisheries, and coastal dynamics in the Gulf of Guayaquil, with a focus on power, community justice, corruption, gangs´ operations and knowledge mobility. She has worked in the Ecuadorian academia, government sector, and civil society organizations. She is a founder member of the Observatory of Public Policy of Guayaquil. She also performs voluntarily as the Academic Coordinator of the local organization Fundación Cerro Verde, which works actively with ancestral communities of the Gulf of Guayaquil to conserve the mangrove ecosystem.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador

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