PD Dr. Carsten Wergin
Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Faculty of Behavioural and Cultural Studies at Heidelberg University, HCE member since 2016.
My key research questions are:
- How can we tackle the interrelated crises associated with global environmental change?
- What are appropriate solutions that equally acknowledge diverse forms of knowledge, imaginaries, social and cultural practices?
- How can interdisciplinary research help facilitate more equitable and convivial worlds of life?
Why I joined the HCE
I had conducted extensive fieldwork among Indigenous communities in Australia with a focus on the multiple crises that arise from conflicting perceptions of the environment and the values ascribed to it. Prominent among those were environmental crises and health challenges caused by the impact of colonialism and extractivism on Indigenous land. The HCE promised to be an ideal setting to further develop interdisciplinary research in such critical zones.
My highlights so far
I very much enjoy the open and collaborative atmosphere that the HCE creates among colleagues with such diverse disciplinary backgrounds. This is unique and particularly rewarding within the wider university landscape.
My key partners
I have the privilege to collaborate with a strong interdisciplinary group of HCE members rooted at the Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), the Institute of Geography, the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH) and the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), among others. My international partners include colleagues from the Geneva Graduate Institute, the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University (ANU), the Nulungu Research Centre of the University of Notre Dame (Australia), the Ifakara Health Institute (Tanzania), The Indian Council of Medical Research, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).