Navya is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture, Department of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, University of Hohenheim.
She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zürich with a focus on environmental policy and sustainable food systems. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, ranging from gender in agriculture and political agroecology to knowledge co-production processes and participatory action research. Navya brings these skills to the Bright Futures project where she aims to interrogate if and how social innovations - such as knowledge networks, market linkages, modes of self-governance and organisation, and social movements - contribute to agricultural trajectories in her home state of Kerala, India and Southern Germany.
Navya sees her research practice as a deeply political and creative act. At the heart of her work is her love for stories and she is guided by the conviction that good stories are bridges - across differences, and between the pasts we have inherited and the futures we build. This is the bigger picture Navya aspires to contribute towards through Bright Futures - to learn relationally, with and from others, collaborate radically, and build futures from many stories - narrated, shared, and carried together.
