Past events
- 2026-06-19T13:30:00+02:00
- 2026-06-19T14:30:00+02:00
19
FridayPublic lecture: An Island for Two
Rather than a dividing line, the border functions as a zone where people from both sides of Haiti and the Dominican Republic live as close neighbors with deep relationships, creating an island isolated between two countries. This presentation explores the "An Island for Two," concept, where the border exists like an island placed inside another island. Within this space, Haitians and Dominicans share unique proximity and a specific spatial solidarity. It is a cultural and social island, a gateway where the border experiences dialectics, rupture, and suture. Ultimately, it represents the revenge of geography over history: what history divided, geography has united. Jean-Marie Théodat's work focuses on borders, identity, and the intertwined histories of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He is the author of influential works and has contributed widely to debates on postcolonialism, debt, and urban life in Haiti.
- 2026-06-18T13:30:00+02:00
- 2026-06-18T14:30:00+02:00
18
ThursdayZEF public lecture. Ruptures: What are we now?
The world is more and more fractured and disconnected, despite the technology that was designed to connect us. What is the nature of rupture, both individual and collective? The Caribbean is, perhaps, the place on earth where rupture has been most thoroughly metabolised into language through its literatures, made into something that can be passed on. How might it serve as a model for rupture and repair in the future?
- 2026-06-11T13:30:00+02:00
- 2026-06-11T15:00:00+02:00
11
ThursdayThe Kara Ritual of the Konso
This talk is part of the Heritage Week of the Bonn. More info here: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/research-and-teaching/research-profile/transdisciplinary-research-areas/tra5/heritage-week-2026
- 2026-06-10T11:00:00+02:00
- 2026-06-10T12:00:00+02:00
10
WednesdayZEF Colloquium: Becoming river
Water is at the center of the struggle for life. Modern civilization's dependence on capitalist formations has led to the destruction of ecosystems and water-bodies as sacred entities. Rivers and mudflats, as complex hybrid networks, reveal ways of living amid a planetary crisis and can offer creative socio-ecological care practices. Drawing from extensive fieldwork in Latin America and the Caribbean, Denisse Roca-Servat, proposes to think with water as a point of departure for envisioning alternatives to the extractive-capitalist model. Becoming river, therefore, implies considering geo-hydro-social diversity, its historical foundations, its multi-scalar assemblages, and ultimately, committing to build alternative hydrosocial relations, intersecting decolonial, feminist, and cosmopolitical justice approaches.
- 2026-06-03T16:30:00+02:00
- 2026-06-03T18:00:00+02:00
3
WednesdayZEF public lecture on The transformation of agrifood traders
The talk presents a panorama of surprising and rapid changes in the trader segment in domestic agrifood value chains in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This is a crucial component of transformation of value chains from traditional to transitional and early modern phases, as traders are major “change agents” in food systems. Many of the patterns observed in detailed trader surveys are at odds with conventional wisdom regarding the role of middlemen, vertical integration, outsourcing of agricultural services, etc. Observed patterns, their drivers, and emerging evidence on effects are discussed. About the speaker: Tom Reardon is one of the most cited agricultural economists worldwide. He is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI. Tom is Fellow of the AAEA and Honorary Life Member of the IAAE. He resided over 20 years in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and spent more than 40 years studying those regions.
- 2026-05-28T16:00:00+02:00
- 2026-05-28T17:00:00+02:00
28
ThursdayINTERFACES colloquium: sustainable land management in Africa
Multiple actors, multiple strategies: how to incentivize the uptake of sustainable land management practices by smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa
- 2026-05-21T13:30:00+02:00
- 2026-05-21T14:30:00+02:00
21
ThursdayZEF public lecture about Biofortified Seeds in Zimbabwe
Individuals do not always make decisions according to traditional economic rationality; instead, behavioral factors such as perceptions, information, and aspirations shape how they value and adopt new technologies. We present 3 examples of how these factors influence farmer acceptance and valuation of agricultural-nutrition interventions, specifically iron- and zinc-biofortified beans and vitamin A biofortified maize seeds in Zimbabwe. First, we examine how experimental quantity design affects farmers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for biofortified bean seeds. Second, we evaluate how nutrition information and farmer aspirations influence demand for biofortified bean seeds. Finally, we examine how different types and combinations of information—including labeling, vitamin A deficiency and its health impacts, the nutritional benefits of vitamin A-biofortified maize, and cooking-quality attributes such as taste and cooking time—influence farmers’ WTP for vitamin A biofortified maize seed.
- 2026-05-13T11:00:00+02:00
- 2026-05-13T12:00:00+02:00
13
WednesdayZEF Colloquium with Marthe Wandou (Right Livelihood Awardee)
In a context of cultural and traditional practices in Northen Cameroon, the patriarchy system has created gender inequalities between men and women with many consequences on women and girls. The Boko Haram crisis has worsened the situation with women and girls being most affected by sexual and gender based violences leading to severe trauma. On this backdrop, Marthe Wandou founded the non-profit NGO Action Locale pour un Développement Participatif et Autogéré (ALDEPA) in 1998, working with community-based approaches, effective strategies and tools in rural communities and schools. Girls’ clubs, child protection committees, peace and non-violence clubs, positive masculinity ambassadors are some community organisations that ALDEPA helped to establish, to address the root problems and to bring sustainable solutions to reinforce legal frameworks, sensitization, and capacity building, and to change the situation with real positive impacts for women and girls.
- 2026-05-06T14:15:00+02:00
- 2026-05-06T15:15:00+02:00
6
WednesdayZEF seminar: food-energy-water-environment nexus's polycrises
The convergence of climate change, resource degradation, geopolitical instability, and economic shocks has intensified a set of interconnected “polycrises” across the food, energy, water, and environment (FEWE) nexus. These overlapping pressures are reshaping agri-food systems globally, with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations and smallholder producers. Drawing on ongoing work from the Agrifood Innovation and Resilience Unit at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the presentation identifies key entry points for integrated policy and investment responses highlighting nexus approaches to uncover synergies and manage trade-offs between competing resource demands.
- 2026-04-29T10:00:00+02:00
- 2026-04-29T11:00:00+02:00
29
WednesdayPublic lecture: Rice Innovation for Food Systems Transformation
This ZEF public lecture will present the International Rice Research Institute’s 2025–2030 Strategy, which sets a clear direction for transforming rice-based agri-food systems toward a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive future. The strategy repositions IRRI – an international research for development organization credited for spurring the Green Revolution in rice-based systems in the 1960s in Asia - as a demand-driven and impact-oriented organization that integrates science, partnerships, and delivery to address country-specific needs across Asia and Africa. The lecture will highlight how IRRI is evolving its research and partnership model to become more integrated, agile, and collaborative in response to a rapidly changing global landscape. It will also explore the role of strategic partnerships, data and digital innovation, and South–South collaboration in scaling solutions and accelerating food systems transformation.