During her fellowship year, Julia Spanier focuses on the role of community empowerment in the struggle for food security. Therefore, she seeks ways to strengthen the voice of local actors and peasants in agricultural and environmental politics. She studied Geography and Political Science at the Universities of Heidelberg and Galway. She holds a master’s degree in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance from the University of Oxford. She gained professional experience in the environmental division of the German Development Ministry, at an organic farm in Spain and at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Her main interests are human-nature-relations, alternative economies, local participation and critical development studies.