Expertise

My scientific expertise is there to help you!

Welcome to my Website. As a scientist, I got specific knowledge about food environments and agricultural topics and do my best to share knowledge that matters and helps you in your projects. Discover more below!

Get in touch !
Projections on Merle Müller-Hansen while she is looking at food items

Data Visualization

Analyzing and visualizing

Analyzing & visualizing

I use data visualization for analysis and science communication. My core expertise are qualitative maps and clean and precise figures. Write to me if you’re interested in:

  • Data analysis
  • Data visualization

Speaking

Raising my voice for science

Raising my voice for science

I speak regularly at conferences and working group meetings, but also at science fairs, podium discussions, and press events. Let me know in case you’d like me to share knowledge at:

  • Conferences
  • Cultural events
Scientist putting sticky notes in the book that lies on top of a pile of books on a table. On the side, there is a candle inside a glass candle holder.

Teaching

Knowledge through education

Knowledge through education

Quality educational services are very important to me. It’s how we can pass knowledge to others in the most direct way. How I share scientific knowledge.

  • Academic seminars at Universities
  • Public lectures
  • Workshops for the public

Writing

Publishing Scientific knowledge

Publishing scientific knowledge

I explain difficult scientific topics in a simple style. My articles appear mostly in international peer reviewed journals about:

  • Food environments
  • Sustainable food production and consumption
  • Digital food cultures
Scientist in smart dress code, holding a laptop, standing on grass in front of a raw cement wall

Organizing

Design, management, implementation

Design, management, implementation

From organizing scientific congresses to implementing a smartphone based application about nutrition and coordinating transdisciplinary research in an international context.

Scientific Expertise

about food environments and Agri-Cultural Topics

I’m Merle Müller-Hansen, scholar with a focus on agriculture and food studies. Currently, I am pursuing my PhD in Geography, where I explore urban food environments through the lens of consumption practices. My research aims to understand how urbanization, climate change, and digitalization shape food choices, health, and sustainability in these regions.

about me
Get in touch
Woman in a suit holding a plate with seedlings of beetroots with green and red leaves

what my Expertise stands for

Scientific Evidence

Against false facts  – In times of disinformation, there is an urgent need for qualitative and quantitative evidence-based expertise.

Up-to-date research

Community embedded – The scientific community is constantly producing rigorous knowledge that can be shared and validated.

From idea to impact

Science from start to finish – Includes research design, data collection, analysis, writing, peer review, and science communication.

Mixed data sources

Ample methods – Scientific expertise stems from working with an array of evolving and cutting-edge methods and tools.

References my field of Expertise

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE

PhD researcher

since 2022, University of Augsburg, Germany

  • Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition (BMEL) funded Indo-German transdisciplinary project NutriAIDE
    -research on food environments in India and Mexico
    -development of an AI based app for healthy and sustainable nutrition
  • 2022/23 & 2024/25 fieldwork scholarships for women in research by the UA office for diversity

COLECTIVO DE LOS CHENES

One year traineeship in a grassroots Maya NGO

2018-2019 in Campeche, Mexico

  • Participatory epidemiology on the health effects of pesticides
  • Systematization of agrarian programs and public politics, and impact analysis on a local level
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

CENTER FOR CLIMATE RESILIENCE

PhD researcher

since 2022, University of Augsburg, Germany

  • Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition (BMEL) funded Indo-German transdisciplinary project NutriAIDE
    -research on food environments in India and Mexico
    -development of an AI based app for healthy and sustainable nutrition
  • 2022/23 & 2024/25 fieldwork scholarships for women in research by the UA office for diversity

COLECTIVO DE LOS CHENES

One year traineeship in a grassroots Maya NGO

2018-2019 in Campeche, Mexico

  • Participatory epidemiology on the health effects of pesticides
  • Systematization of agrarian programs and public politics, and impact analysis on a local level
Academic Background

LATIN AMERICAN INSTITUTE, FU BERLIN

Master (M.A) Interdisciplinary Latin American Studies

2018-2021, Berlin, Germany

  • Finale grade: 1,4 (very good)
  • Thesis “Agrochemical impacts on the environment and health: socioecological inequalities and social(de)mobilization. Maya and Mennonites in Mexico”
  • 6 month research scholarship PROMOS by the DAAD Berlin, Germany | 2019 – October 2021

OTTO-SUHR INSTITUTE, FU BERLIN

Bachelor (B.A.) Political Science

Berlin, Germany | 2014 – 2019

FREIE WALDORFSCHULE, TÜBINGEN

German high school degree (Abitur)

Tübingen, Germany | 2001 – 2014

  • Final Grade: 1,6 (very good)
Selected Publications as corresponding author

Social & Cultural Geography 2025
From the ‘wealthy-healthy-chubby’ nexus to ‘outside foods’: changing food consumption practices in India and Mexico
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2025.2498944?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstract

Geographien Südasiens 2024
“Urban Food Environments in India and Mexico”
https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1364/chapter/20558

Die Erde 2023 (Vol. 154: 1)
“Interdisciplinary research on food environments: the key to transforming unhealthy food consumption practices and unsustainable food systems“
https://die-erde.org/index.php/die-erde/article/view/656

Interested in working together?

Get in touch
Colorful cell-like graph featuring eight key dimensions of food environments: digitality, infrastructure, food providers, food & drinks, corporeality, personal background, discourse, and practices

Discover my latest blog publication

Discover my latest blog publication

U
Figure on the Slow Food Movement and its central concepts: higher food quality, regional food networks, community cohesion, preserving agricultural products and practices, lower food miles travelled, and nutrition education.

La Via Campesina and Slow Food

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Guest Blog Post by Valentina Bendl “La Via Campesina and Slow Food: Challenging the Status Quo through Food Movements” In this in-depth guest post, Valentina Bendl explores how global food movements such as La Via Campesina and Slow Food offer alternative models to the dominant corporate food regime. Through the…

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