Research Opportunities for PhD and Masters Students!

ConvivAG LAB is a collaborative research “lab” for scholars and students undertaking critical studies at the intersections of Convivial Conservation and Regenerative Agriculture. Together we will explore roles on ongoing projects and support for independent and thesis projects; we will meet regularly to discuss works in progress; and we will co-build bibliographies and participate in field trips to relevant agroecological projects.

Meetings will take place once or twice per month.

INTRODUCTORY MEETING: Wednesday September 29, 09.30 AM.

FIRST WORKS-IN-PROGRESS : Wednesday, October 12, 2 PM.

FEATURED PROJECTS:

• Regenerative Agriculture: Practices, Tradeoffs, Origins, Erasures

This project is amassing an archive of cultivation practices considered to be “Regenerative” by various groups and in different places, toward a) assessing the growing diversity of practices, b) highlighting ecological and social tradeoffs among them, and c) tracing practices to indigenous and traditional origins.

• Genealogies of Sustainability

This project is mapping the terminology of Regenerative Agriculture in conversation with discourses of sustainability in various regions over the past century, toward better understanding social, political, economic ramifications of sharing and discarding language of advocacy. Data collection includes literature review; interviews with farmers, soil scientists, indigenous community leaders, and policymakers; as well as a virtual questionnaire. We are also collecting data from social media, documentary film, podcasts, and interviews, asking how is multispecies conviviality and the act of cultivating greater biodiversity in agriculture depicted in media, by whom, and to what end, with particular attention on the movement of symbols and tropes across advocacy and corporate advertising spheres.

• Soil Carbon Banking: Markets, Technologies, and Conviviality in Agriculture

Postdoctoral researcher Serena Stein’s focus project, this project accompanies “new/old” possibilities for soil carbon sequestration or “soil carbon banking,” across southern Africa, the United States, and The Netherlands, as they both repeat and diverge from past experiments in carbon trade, commodifying nature, and foreign aid interventions in agrarian landscapes. It involves investigations into changing soil relations; land use and access in racialized settler colonial landscapes; emerging blockchain technology for auditing soil carbon and opportunistic industries; as well as development politics of conservation.

Contact Serena Stein: serena.stein@wur.nl for a link to the first meeting to see about possibilities, ask questions, and find out upcoming meetings.

Our Education Coordinators can also provide information on thesis and internships, thesis rings, and much more: thesis.sdc@wur.nl, thesis.rso@wur.nl

Duration: 6 months

Languages: English and French

Credits: 33-36 ECTS (programme dependent)

Start Date: As soon as possible

Quinoa is experiencing a global expansion of cultivation all around the world. France is one the most important producers of quinoa in Europe. Yet the sustainability of French quinoa production systems remains under-researched. This includes familiar debates of organic versus conventional production, as well as the viability of ‘farm to fork’ transportation and distribution systems.

The MSc candidate will assess the sustainability of the quinoa value chain in France. The candidate will conduct interviews with members of the cooperative “Quinoa d’Anjou” assessing the sustainability combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Following the current restrictions, the interviews will be conducted online.

Objectives:

• Combining quantitative and qualitative data to assess the sustainability of quinoa value chain of the cooperative of Anjou in France.
• Conduct a Life Cycle Assessment testing the MEANS program. Training will be provided.

Supervision team:

• Mark Vicol, Assistant Professor in RSO
• Federico Andreotti, PhD Candidate in GRS

Advisors:

• Didier Bazile, researcher at CIRAD, France
• Cécile Bessou, researcher at CIRAD, France

Relevant literature:

• Alandia, G., Rodriguez, J. P., Jacobsen, S. E., Bazile, D., & Condori, B. (2020). Global expansion of quinoa and challenges for the Andean region. Global Food Security, 26, 100429.
• Bazile, D., Jacobsen, S. E., & Verniau, A. (2016). The global expansion of quinoa: trends and limits. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7, 622.
• Jouini, M., Burte, J., Biard, Y., Benaissa, N., Amara, H., & Sinfort, C. (2019). A framework for coupling a participatory approach and life cycle assessment for public decision-making in rural territory management. Science of the Total Environment, 655, 1017-1027.

Requirements:

• Interest in Agroecology studies, value chain studies and/or sustainable development
• Interests and/or knowledge of food value chains: production, processing, distribution
• Skills for conducting interviews remotely and data analysis
• French language fluency is required.

If interested please contact federico.andreotti@wur.nl