Dr. Anne-Katrin Broocks

Dr. Anne-Katrin Broocks is a social anthropologist and sociologist who studies how humans, land, and species relate during times of socioecological transformation, while also engaging in transformative research towards desirable land futures. She is currently based at the Vechta Institute of Sustainability Transformation in Rural Areas (VISTRA), University of Vechta, where she coordinates a Living Lab on the future of moorlands within the research project AgriChange. Previously, from 2023 to 2025, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Latin American Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, and Coordinator of the Research Group “Regional Governance, Actor Perspectives and Communication” within the BMBF-funded Tipping Point Project PRODIGY. She is an adjunct researcher at MECILA – the Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality–Inequality in Latin America, via the Latin American Institute.

Her postdoctoral project links transformative long-term ethnographic and discourse-analytical research in the Southwestern Amazon with research on moorlands in northern Germany. It advances land theories and multispecies methodologies for world-making, for example by examining knowledge shocks and ontological tipping points—moments in which dominant understandings of land, soil, and ‚nature‘ are destabilized and reconfigured. Empirically, her work explores the meanings and imaginaries that shape soil, rainforest, and moorland relationalities, the embodied effects of land-use change, and how the material agency of soils unsettles hegemonic projects of control and optimization, opening space for co-constructing new ways of ‚making with‘.

Anne holds an MA in Social Anthropology, Latin American Studies, and German Literature from the University of Hamburg, where she wrote her master’s thesis on Transnational Backpacking Culture in South America. She earned a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Bremen, completed in cooperation with the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and ESPOL University Guayaquil; her doctoral research examined mangrove meaning-making in Ecuador over the past 200 years. Beyond academia, she has extensive experience in development cooperation, conservation, and policy-making in Germany, Latin America, and Southern Africa.

Education

2023    PhD Social Sciences – Knowledge and Development Sociology Working Group, Doctoral Supervision Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Prof. Dr. Uwe Schimank, University of Bremen and Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT). Thesis: Mangroves and Meaning-Making over time. DAAD Scholarship for  fieldwork phase in Ecuador. Adjunct fellow: Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS).

2009    M.A. in Social Anthropology, Latin American Studies & German Literature at University of Hamburg. Thesis: Transnational Backpacker Culture in South America

Professional Experience

Since 12.2025 Researcher (post-doc) and Living Lab Coordination, Agri:LabX4 (VISTRA), University of Vechta.

12.2023-11.2025 Researcher (post-doc) and Coordinator WP3 "Regional Governance, Actor Perspective and Communication" in the BMBF-funded Tipping Point Project PRODIGY „Soil Biodiversity Governing Tipping Points in the Amazon“, Latin American Institute, Prof. Sérgio Costa, Freie Universität Berlin.
 
01.2023-11.2023  Senior Policy Advisor at German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Division: Policy Issues of Discplament and Migration, Berlin, Germany.

06.2021-12.2022   Programme Coordinator: «Transformation of resource conflicts and promotion of intercultural dialogue in the Bolivian lowlands», Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), Civil Peace Service, Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

09.2020-05.2021    Researcher (pre-doc) at Socium Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy and Institute of Sociology at University of Bremen.

09.2018-09.2020    Researcher (pre-doc) at Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Knowledge and Development Sociology Working Group and affiliated to Mangrove Ecology Group, Bremen.

08.2016-08.2018    Advisor for conflict transformation in resource conflicts and Gender, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Civil Peace Service, Boliva.

11.2013-01.2016    Advisor for a sustainable local economy and public-private dialogue in the Bazaruto Marine National Park Area, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Programme ‘ProEcon’, Mozambique.

01.2011-03.2013   Department Head: «Sustainability Department», Vamizi Island / Angoche, Cabo Delgado Biodiversity Trust, Mozambique

Selection of Talks, Presentations and Co-Creation Events

10–12 September 2025 – Tropentag 2025 – Pre-Conference PRODIGY Workshop and Online Presentation: 'Knowledge Encounter: Multispecies Perspectives on Land Use Change in the Southwestern Amazon'.

5 August 2025 – Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA) Conference, Helsinki, Finland. Panel Co-Organizer: 'Forest Conviviality and Co-Creation in Times of Violence, Death and Survival'. Presentation: 'Co-creations of long-gone futures: retelling the story of the gold(s) in the Southwestern Amazon'.

8 April 2025 – MECILA Kick-Off Workshop 2025 'Relationalities', São Paulo, CEBRAP. Presentation: 'Knowledge Encounter: Multispecies Perspectives on Land Use Transformations in the Southwestern Amazon of Bolivia'.

August 2024-April 2025 – Three Participatory future workshops on sustainable land use futures in the Southwestern Amazon: Rio Branco, Acre, Brazil and Cobija, Pando, Bolivia. Co-conception and co-organisation.

11–15 November 2024 – Online participation at CLIMATE COP 29 with Observer Status, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Baku, Azerbaijan. Coordination of Prodigy WP3 Team Participation.

20 June 2024 – Symposium 'Die Welt von gestern deuten. Historische Anthropologie als Zugang zu einer komplexen Vergangenheit', Saarbrücken University. Presentation: 'Historische, inklusive Diskursanalyse als dekoloniale Methode? Entwicklungen der “NaturenKulturen des Amazonas” und der “MangrovenKulturen” Ecuadors'.

17 September 2024 – Co-organisation and Co-moderation: 'Amazon of Peoples and Territories: Threats, Resistances & Future Imaginaries', Brazilian Embassy together with Heinrich Böll Foundation and Prodigy WP3 LAI/FU Berlin.

11 March 2024 – Colloquium of the Working Group for Peace and Conflict Research, Darmstadt. Presentation: 'Power/Knowledge over Time – Consequences of Conservation and Development Discourses in the Mangroves of Guayaquil, Ecuador'.

18 August 2023 – Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen. Presentation: 'Mangroves and Meaning-Making – Globalised Discourses and Their Impact on Mangrove Use'.

7–8 July 2022 – Hybrid international 'Conferencia Interepistémica: Paz', University of Núr, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Co-organisation of interepistemic dialogue between civil society organisations and universities from Bolivia, Guatemala, and Honduras, GIZ Programme Civil Peace Service.

11 May 2022 – UN Ocean Decade Laboratory, Berlin. Expert panel discussion: 'Accessible Ocean Knowledge', organised by DIE/GDI (IDOS) and IASS.

21 January 2021 – Second ZMT Annual Conference 'ZAC2', Bremen. Speaker: 'Larvae, Cash & the City: The Social Costs of Shrimp Production in Guayaquil’s Mangroves'.

2 February 2021 – GDI / DIE German Development Institute, Research Seminar. Presentation: 'Knowledge and Power over Time – Globalized Mangrove Discourses'.

19 May 2020 – Doctoral Colloquium, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Bremen. Presentation: 'Mangroves, Hygiene and Exclusion – Findings from Fieldwork in Guayaquil, Ecuador'.

January 2020 – September 2019 – ESPOL University, Guayaquil, Ecuador. Presentation and discussion with stakeholders: „The Social Construction of Mangroves – A Mutual Relationship over Time?‘, Sessions: 'Mangroves as a way of life‘ and 'Urban Mangroves'.

1 June 2019 – Joint Annual Conference of GAPS and IACPL, University of Bremen. Speaker: 'The Meaning of Mangroves – Littoral Sense-Making“.

Broocks, AK., Sgambatti Monteiro, A., Pinzón Cuellar, C., Villavicencio, M., Peña Valdeiglesias, J., Schmidt, F., Cabanillas, F., Prestes-Dürrnagel, A., Selaya, G., Schilling, J., & Guaudion, M.(in review). Toward Forest Conviviality: Knowledge and Tipping Points in the Southwestern Amazon since 1860.

Alan Ferreira, M.; Broocks, AK.; Sgambatti Monteiro, A.; Prestes Duerrnagel, A.; Pinzón Cuellar, C.; Schönenberg, R. (in review): “Criminal Organizations and Territorial Governance in the Southern Amazon: Dynamics and Socio-Ecological Impacts”. Territory, Politics and Governance.

Sgambatti Monteiroa, A., & Broocks, A.-K. (accepted). „Acre's ISA Carbono Framework: Examining conflicts on environmental services at a local level in Amazon conservation policies“. Latin American Legal Studies.

Broocks, A. K., Barragán-Paladines, M. J., Nolivos, I., & Hornidge, A. K. (2025). "Mimicry worlds in Ecuador’s mangroves: the (post)colonial power of science in mangrove conservation and development". Environmental Sociology, 1–27. doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2025.2511478

Broocks, A. K.(2023): “Mangroves and Meaning-Making over time: Globalized Discourse and its impact on Mangrove Use”. Dissertation. University of Bremen, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen. doi.org/10.26092/elib/2449.

Broocks, A.K. (2021): "Mangroves and Meaning-Making: A mutual relationship over time? Study report. Forschungsdatenzentrum Qualiservice, Universität Bremen. doi.org/10.26092/elib/1071

Hornidge, A. K.; Barragán-Paladines, M. J.; Broocks, A. K.; Zimmer, M. (2021): "Data Set: Mangroves and Meaning-Making: A mutual relationship over time?". Editorial Publication. Forschungsdatenzentrum Qualiservice, Universität Bremen. doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.930138

Broocks, A. K. and Hornidge, A.K. (2020): "Infektionsketten in Guayaquil – Marginalisierte Menschen als schwächstes Glied in Pandemien“. Die Aktuelle Kolumne. Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik DIE, Bonn. www.idos-research.de/uploads/media/Deutsches_Institut_fuer_Entwicklungspolitik_Broocks_Hornidge_11.05.2020.pdf

Broocks, A.K. and Guachalla, O. (2017): "Herramientas de Manejo del conflict socio-ambiental en Bolivia (Methods for the Management of environmental conflicts in Bolivia)". LIDEMA, La Paz, Bolivien. lidema.org.bo/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/herramientas_manejo_conflicto_ambiental.pdf

Broocks, A. K. and Hannam, K. (2016): "The Artisan Backpacker: A Development in Latin American Backpacker Tourism". International Journal of Tourism Anthropology 5:1/2. S. 152-164. www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/10.1504/IJTA.2016.076854

Broocks, A.K. (2009): "Transnationale Kultur – Backpacker in Südamerika“. M. A. Thesis, Institut für Ethnologie, Universität Hamburg

2023–2025 – PRODIGY 2.0 – Working Package III: Regional Governance, Actor Perspectives and Communication; Partner institutions: Latin American Institute, Freie Universität Berlin; Universidad Nacional Amazónica de Madre de Dios (UNAMAD), Peru; Universidad Autónoma del Pando (UAP), Bolivia; Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC), Brazil; funded by BMBF

2021–2022 – Transformation of Resource Conflicts and Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue in the Bolivian Lowlands (ZFD); implemented by GIZ; funded by BMZ

2018–2020 – Mangroves and Meaning-Making over Time; Partner institutions: Charles Darwin Foundation Galapagos / ESPOL University, Ecuador; funded by Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT)

2016–2018 – Transformation of Resource Conflicts and Promotion of Intercultural Dialogue in the Bolivian Lowlands (ZFD); Partner institutions: Fundaciòn TIERRA / LIDEMA, Bolivia; funded by BMZ

2013–2015 – ProEcon – Sustainable Local Economy and Public-Private Dialogue in the Bazaruto Marine National Park Area; partner institutions: Mozambique Ministry / local governments and NGOs; funded by BMZ
 

The Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA)