Research Interests

• Organic agriculture production systems
• smallholder farming
• systems analysis in agriculture
• agricultural food chains
• ethnobotany
• 'forgotten' vegetables

Regional Focus

• India
• Japan

Professional Training

November 2016 until present

Research fellow and PhD candidate at the Institute of Geography, University of Cologne, Working Group: Economic Geography, Prof. Dr. Boris Braun

Project: Standards 2.0? Livelihoods of Indian smallholder farmers between global and domestic value chains for organic and fair trade agri-food products (funded by the German Research Foundation, 2016-2019)

09/2014-08/2016

Master of Science, Organic Agriculture Program (specialization: Agroecology) at Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Major Thesis with Farming Systems Ecology Group
Topic: 'Choosing to Nourish: A Nutrition-sensitive Analysis of Case-studies in Vietnam'

Minor Thesis with Biosystematics Group
Topic: 'Crop Diversity in 19th Century Japan: An Analysis of the Seikei Zusetsu agricultural encyclopedia gifted to Philipp Franz von Siebold 04/2010-03/2014 International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan) 　

4/2010-3/2014

Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, Majoring in Anthropology with a Minor in Development Studies at the International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan)

Thesis title: I am a Hyakusho: The Values and Ethics of Alternative Agriculture in Japan.