ENP welcomes Maíra de Jong van Lier as junior researcher

Maíra is the new Junior Researcher at the Environmental Policy Group. After her Political Science bachelor at the University of Amsterdam, she came to Wageningen driven by her interest in interdisciplinary research. At the WUR she earned a Masters in Environmental Sciences (cum laude), with a thesis on agricultural expansion in the Brazilian savanna. The thesis explored the different narratives that exist around agricultural expansion, and how these narratives reflect material power relations. In developing a PhD proposal as junior researcher, she will seek to investigate pathways for sustainable agriculture in Brazil. On Thursday 5 April, Maíra will present her thesis as one of 8 nominees for the NALACS Thesis Award.

Maíra is also interested in environmental education, and helped monitor and evaluate an environment and citizenship project implemented at secondary schools in Mozambique. In addition, she participates as a guest lecturer in the Global Guests project implemented by Otherwise. Her activities as a junior researcher also include educational and management tasks. Her first responsibility in this regard will be to run one of the groups in the Seminar Social Sciences course.