I work as assistant professor with the Environmental Policy group, focusing on  inclusive marine governance, including different nature perspectives in marine and coastal conservation and restoration programs, with a special interest in the restoration of  coral and shellfish reefs. While I was trained in environmental anthropology and qualitative research methods, I combine elements of science and technology studies, political ecology, multispecies ethnography and feminist theory. Combining theory with ethnographic inquiry, my work explores matters of equity and decolonization in environmental governance and knowledge practices,  relating to marine and intertidal places. In this context, I lead a project on diversity and gender in coral and oyster reef rehabilitation for the Ocean Nexus program (2020-2022) with the University of Washington.

More broadly, I am interested in inclusive approaches and methodologies that are responsive to pluralism; making room for relational thinking, indigenous ecologies and dialogue across epistemological and ontological difference. In this, I build on my ‘Amphibious Anthropology’ of a practice and ethics of translating in-between worlds that partly overlap, without reducing one to the logics of the other, which formed the core of my PhD project. For this I lived and travelled with sea-based communities as well as conservation practitioners in Indonesia to explore their different ways of relating to the sea, and how this affects the outcomes of marine conservation programs.

Over the years I have developed a deep appreciation and fascination for Southeast Asian societies, and Indonesia in particular. I have enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of maritime societies in Kalimantan and Sulawesi as I have spend over 24 months doing ethnographic research in their coastal villages and island communities, and travelling with them across the sea. In Indonesia, and more recently in Vietnam I have studied topics ranging from the role of spirits in human-sea relations, women in wildlife trade networks, cyanide and blast fishing, and mobile methods, and inclusion/exclusion of small-scale shrimp farmers in in sustainable aquaculture protocols.

In the projects and publications sections on this website you can find links to my past and present work and publications.

My professional and educational background:

  • 2017 – Ph.D. (Cum Laude) in the Sociology and Anthropology of Development/Sociology of Development and Change Group/ Wageningen University/NL. Title of PhD dissertation: Amphibious Anthropology: Engaging with Maritime Worlds in Indonesia. Promotor Prof. em. L.E. Visser, co-promotor Dr. G.M. Verschoor.
  • 2010 – MSc. (Cum Laude) in International Development/Wageningen University/NL, with specialization in rural development and conflict.
  • 2008 – MA Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology/Leiden University/NL, with specialization environmental anthropology.
  • 2006 – International Migration and Ethnic Relations/Malmö University/ Sweden.
  • 2003-2006 – BA Cultural Anthropology/Utrecht University/NL.

Academic Positions:

  • 2019 – Postdoc Researcher EURASTiP project/Environmental Policy Group/Wageningen University/NL
  • 2016-2018 – Lecturer Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology/Leiden University/NL

Full curriculum vitae:

CV Annet Pauwelussen 2020Download