Recent Research

The RCC hosts a wide range of research projects supported by our partner institutions. Explore our ongoing projects here.

Changing Environments, Changing Childhoods

This five-year research project (2025–29) investigates the impact of environmental changes on the moral development of children in three Indigenous societies. It is funded by an ERC Starting Grant and carried out by a team of international researchers at the RCC under the direction of Dr. Jan David Hauck.

(Dis)Empowered Communities: A Comparative Study of Decommissioning Nuclear Sites

The project sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation will investigate the socioecological and economic implications of nuclear decommissioning sites in Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the United States.

Foraging at the Edge of Capitalism

The objective of this project is to work toward a comprehensive political ecology of foraging in the Anthropocene. The project (2022–26) is funded by an ERC Consolidator Grant.

Fostering the Health-Nutrition-Ecology Nexus

The objective of this project is to reveal the links between natural resource use and the human health and nutrition perspectives, and to eventually derive a conceptual model of the health-nutrition-ecology nexus. The project is funded by a DFG research grant for 36 months.

Fragments of the Forest

This five-year ERC Advanced Grant (2021-2026) explores ecologies of extraction that have turned the Guinean Forests of West Africa into a “hotspot" of biodiversity conservation and virus research.

Greening Military?

“Greening Military? On the Transformation of the Armed Forces in the Context of the ‘Zeitenwende’ and Climate Crisis” examines the tensions between Germany's climate goal and its defense budget increase. The project is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

Human-Wildlife Conflicts in China

This project focuses on human-wildlife conflicts in China and aims to draw public attention to this issue.

Learning Nature(s)

This project is the first large-scale comparative study to examine how specific practices of socialization, material engagements, and direct and indirect interactions with natural entities shape children's understandings and relationships with the nonhuman world. It is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

Rethinking Wetlands (ReWet)

“Rethinking Wetlands (ReWet): An Environmental Anthropology of Wetlands“ is a DFG-funded project led by Paolo Gruppuso (2024–27).

Speak4Nature

The Rachel Carson Center is a part of a new multi-year, international, and interdisciplinary project that focuses on understanding ecological interdependence and the Rights of Nature.

Strengthening the Environmental Humanities

The aim of this project is to support the permanent institutionalization of the Environmental Humanities (EH) at LMU. It receives funding from the Volkswagen Foundation.

Vanport, Oregon

This project traces the history of Vanport, a wartime housing project built near Portland, Oregon in 1942–43 which now stands as a symbol of resilience against racism, adversity, and environmental injustice. The project is led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Lübken.