Universitat Passau (UPAS)

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Martina Padmanabhan photoProfessor Martina Padmanabhan received a Diploma in Agricultural Sciences and a PhD in Rural Sociology from the University of Göttingen. She gained her venia legendi for Rural Sociology from the Humboldt University Berlin, and holds the chair for Comparative Development and Cultural Studies with a focus on Southeast Asia at the University of Passau.
Her main research interests are natural resource management, gender studies, institutional analysis and the theory and practice of transdisciplinary research. She has conducted empirical fieldwork in Ghana, Ethiopia, India and Indonesia.

She was visiting professor within the scope of the IndORGANIC project since August 2017 till June 2018 at the Atma Jaya Universitas Yogyakarta Indonesia. She recently edited “Transdisciplinary Research and Sustainablity. Collaboration, Innovation and Transformation” with Routledge (2018) She has gained vast experience in leading binational trans- and interdisciplinary research group within the framework of research for sustainability and social-ecological research (BMBF). From 2010-2015 BioDIVA generated transformation knowledge for the equitable and sustainable utilization of agrobiodiversity in South India and methodological reflection on transdisciplinary sustainability science. She pursues research into institutions and natural resources in empirical research as well as engages in methodological debates, informed by her training as agricultural engineer and her yearlong internship on an organic farm in Germany in affiliation with the University of Kassel-Witzenhausen.
Martina’s profile on UPAS website