IGDC Member Spotlight - Hanne Cottyn

Hanne is a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Department of History and is currently working with other IGDC members on the NERC-funded project "Integrating ecological and cultural histories to inform sustainable and equitable futures for the Colombian páramos." Within this project, Hanne is analysing historical processes of socio-environmental change in peasant communities that inhabit the páramo region of the Columbian highlands.

Hanne holds a PhD in History from Ghent University in Belgium, studying the repercussions of nineteenth-century liberal land reforms on the indigenous communities of the Bolivian highlands. Hanne then moved onto working in development cooperation in Peru alongside local and international NGOs and grassroots movements.

After coordinating staff at the Ghent Centre for Global Studies, Hanne worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Department of History at Ghent University, researching land conflicts and rural transformations in Peruvian and Bolivian highlands. Before joining the University of York, she also taught Latin American Studies at the Department of Conflict and Development Studies. Hanne would be interested in discussing possible networking opportunities between the IGDC and the Ghent Centre for Global Studies in the future.

Hanne’s research interests intersect between rural history, critical global studies and political ecology. She has extensive archival research and field work in Bolivia, Peru and Chile, where she works with academic institutions and social organisations. Hanne is now extending her expertise in Colombia and is an active member of networks such as the Commodity Frontiers Initiative and the Belgian Latin network, ENCUENTRO.

View Hanne Cottyn's profile on ResearchGate