Prof. Dr. Martina Padmanabhan

Professional Experience

2024 Liaison lecturer at the Heinrich Böll Foundation 

2023 Women's Representative of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education: www.uni-passau.de/frauenbeauftragte 

2022 Renaming of Chair to Critical Development Studies - Southeast Asia (http://asien.asienforschung.de/principles-of-critical-development-studies-a-minifesto/)

2017-2018 Visiting Professor, Atma Jaya University Yogyakarta Indonesia

Since 2013 Chaired Professor, Chair of Comparative Development and Cultural Studies esp. Southeast Asia, University of Passau

2010–2013, Research Group Leader, Leibniz University Hannover, Social-Ecological Research BioDIVA – Transformation Knowledge for Equitable and Sustainable use of Biodiveristy

2003–2008 Assistant Professor, Chair of Resource Economics, Humboldt University, Berlin

2001–2003 Research Fellow, Berlin Social Science Center (WZB)

1996–2000 Research Fellow, Institute of Rural Development, Agricultural Faculty, University of Göttingen

Education

2009 Postdoctoral Lecture Qualification Rural Sociology (Habilitation), Humboldt University Berlin

2000 Dr. sc. agr., Rural Sociology, University of Göttingen

1996 Dipl.-Ing. agr. Agricultural Engineer, University of Göttingen

1989–1991 International Agricultural Sciences, Technische Universität Berlin

Selected Awards and Grants

2018-2022 EU Well-being, Ecology, Gender, and cOmmunity (Innovative Training Network)

2016–2021 BMBF Grant IndORGANIC (Bioeconomy)

2015 DFG Grant IndSEARCH (International Cooperation)

2009–2013 BMBF Grant BioDiva (Research for Sustainable Development)

2004–2008 EU Grant Sensor: Institutional Analysis of Modelling Tools for Sustainable Land Use Policies

2005 – 2007 BMZ Grant Collective action and property rights for poverty reduction: Pastoralists in Ethiopia

1996-2000 GTZ Grant: Gender relations and agricultural Innovations in Northern Ghana

1996 Best Thesis Award, Gesellschaft der Freunde der Landwirtschaftlichen Fakultät Göttingen

• Asiedu P., Michalscheck M., Kotu B. H., Birhanu B., Padmanabhan M., Amponsah C.O., Responsible scaling for sustainable intensification: Dimensions of land rights and farmer realities in Northern Ghana, Land Use Policy, Volume 169, 2026, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2026.108151
• Padmanabhan M, Kurfürst SR. Between the Mountains and the Sea: Performative Approaches to Human and More-than-Human-Relations in Technoenvironments in Indonesia and Vietnam. TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia. Published online 2026:1-17. https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2026.10018
• Padmanabhan, Martina (2026) Knowledge as Ceremony — Curating and Handing Down The Art of Resistance | Foreword. In: Maimunah, Siti; Noer Fauzi Rachman (eds) Our Weapon is Traditional Ritual. The Symbolic Expressions and Spells of the Nausus, Human Rights Defender-Environmentalist. Mama Aleta Fund. Yogyakarta: INSISTPress. xi-xvi
• Ehlert J. & Padmanabhan, M. (2025). The missing lens: feminist perspectives on agro-food system transformation in Vietnam and Indonesia. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie
• Padmanabhan, M. (2025). Bedürfnistheorie. Was braucht’s zum Guten Leben? Reflexionen auf Suffizienz. In: Jana John, Raphaela Casata & Anna Henkel (Hgs.) 10 Minuten Soziologie: Gutes Leben. Bielefeld: Transcript. 45-58.
• Padmanabhan, M. (2024). Was will internationale transdisziplinäre Nachhaltigkeitsforschung in Niederbayern? Das Versprechen der Kleinstadt. In: Ulrich Bartosch (Hg.). Die Idee der Universität – heute. Bad Heilbrunn: Julius Klinkhardt., 196-204.

Further publications on Research Gate and Google Scholar

Comparative Development Studies
Gender Studies
Institutional Analysis
Socio-ecological Research
Trans- and Interdisciplinarity
Women's Affairs Officer
Student Advisor