Fellow-Klasse 2025/26 Prof. Dr. Renata Campos Motta
Arbeitsvorhaben am Marsilius-Kolleg
Exploring the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary participatory research on traditional crops for sustainable food systems
Introducing novel practices into global food production is key for maintaining biodiversity and ensuring sustainable nutrition of an ever-growing human population. Traditional crops, cultivated by small rural communities hold big promises in this regard as they often are exceptionally nutritious and resistant against environmental perturbations without the need of pesticides and additional fertilizers. However, modern agricultural practices are usually not adapted to their large-scale cultivation and knowledge of traditional communities is not integrated into their biotechnological and agricultural investigation. Here, we apply as a tandem to the Marsilius-Kolleg, to explore the challenges and benefits of participatory research on traditional crops for enhancing global food security. As an exemplary research object, we will focus on a project on Tropaeolum tuberosum (mashua), currently being supported at Heidelberg University by the Klaus-Tschira-Stiftung. By combining our expertise in Latin-American society and culture and in plant biology, we strongly believe that we are an ideal team for bridging societal and biological aspects within agricultural research and can make a strong multidisciplinary case in the context of the Marsilius-Kolleg and as an accompanying action of the envisaged excellence cluster GreenRobust.
FORSCHUNGSGEBIETE
I am a sociologist with broad interdisciplinary research interests in food studies, critical agrarian studies, and gender studies, while drawing on environmental sociology and political sociology. My academic work follows the role of social mobilization and state-society relations in struggles where competing visions of food and agrarian futures are at stake. Through the lenses of food, she observes how social movements also articulate other agendas of social change, such as feminism, anti-racis
Lebenslauf
Beruflicher Werdegang
- Since 10/2022 Deputy Director, Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS), Heidelberg University
- Since 08/2022 Professor of “Society, Culture and Communication in Ibero-America” in the Heidelberg University
- 10/2021-07/2022 Maternity leave
- 04/2019-03/2025 Project Leader BMBF-Junior Research Group Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy
- 07/2018-07/2022 Assistant Professor of Sociology (Junior Professur in Soziologie Lateinamerikas mit den Schwerpunkten Umwelt-, Ungleichheits- und Genderforschung) Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
- 09/2017-06/2018 Substitute Associate Professor in Brazil Studies and Global Studies School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark
- 03/2015-08/2017 Assistant Professor of Sociology (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
- 10/2015-10/2016 Maternity leave
- 03/2014-02/2015 Research Associate and Lecturer (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin), Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Ausbildung
- 03/2011-03/2014 Doctoral Researcher BMBF-funded project desiguALdades.net (International research network on interdependent inequalities in Latin America) Institute for Latin American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Ausgewählte Publikationen
Tabelle
Motta, R. (2016). Social mobilization, global capitalism and struggles over food: A comparative study of social movements. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. |
Motta, R. (2021). Social movements as agents of change: Fighting intersectional food inequalities, building food as webs of life. The Sociological Review, 69 (3): pp. 603-625. |
Jelin, E., Costa, S. & Motta, R. (2017) (eds.). Global Entangled Inequalities: Concepts and Evidence from Latin America. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. |
Arancibia, Florencia, and Renata Motta. 2019. Undone science and counter-expertise: fighting for justice in an Argentine community contaminated by pesticides. Science as Culture, 28 (3): pp. 277–302. |
Teixeira, M.A., Motta, R. (2024). Broadening the Climate Movement: The Marcha das Margaridas’ Agenda for the Climate (and Other) Crises. Int J Polit Cult Soc 37, 513-542. |
Motta, R. & Teixeira, M. A. (2022). Food sovereignty and popular feminism in Brazil. Special edition - Gender and Food: Contemporary perspectives, Studies and Research. Anthropology of Food. |
Galindo, E.; M. Teixeira, M. Araújo, R. Motta, M.Pessoa, L.Mendes & L. Rennó. (2021). Efeitos da pandemia na alimentação e na situação da segurança alimentar no Brasil. Food for Justice Working Paper Series #4. Berlin: Food for Justice: Power, Politics, and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy. |
Lapegna, Pablo, Maritza Paredes, and Renata Motta. (2023). Demobilization Processes in Latin America', in Federico M. Rossi (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Social Movements. Oxford University Press (in print and online). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190870362.013.44 pp. 283-300. |
Arancibia, Florencia, Renata Motta, and Peter Clausig. (2020). The neglected burden of agricultural intensification: A contribution to the debate on land-use change. Journal of Land Use Science, 15(2-3): pp. 235–251. |
Motta, R. (2013). The public debate about agrobiotechnology in Latin American countries: a comparative study of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. ECLAC Production Development Series 193. Santiago de Chile: ECLAC. |
KONTAKT
Prof. Dr. Renata Campos Motta
Heidelberg Centrum für Ibero-Amerika-Studien
E-Mail: renata.motta@uni-heidelberg.de