About Us Renata Motta
PROFESSOR OF “SOCIETY, CULTURE, AND COMMUNICATION IN IBERO-AMERICA”
Fiebiger Professorship as part of the Baden-Württemberg Initiative “Kleine Fächer”
HCIAS Deputy Director
Affiliation: Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies
Cooperation: Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences
Email: renata.motta(at)uni-heidelberg.de
Dr. Renata Motta is a sociologist with interdisciplinary research interests. She currently leads the “Kitchen and Garden” subproject of CRC 1671, studying how Latin American activism in kitchens and gardens fosters social and ecological transformation in Brazil and Argentina. Additionally, she's exploring the challenges and benefits of interdisciplinary participatory research on traditional crops for sustainable food systems, combining social and biological expertise as a fellow at the Marsillius Kolleg.
She was the project leader of the research group “Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy” (2019-2025), funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Renata holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the Universidade de Brasília (Brazil), and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the Pontíficia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (Brazil).
Before joining the HCIAS in August 2022, she was a Junior Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin (July 2018 – July 2022), and a Guest Associate Professor of Brazilian Studies and Global Studies at Aarhus University, Denmark (2017-2018). She has been a visiting professor at the Università degli studi di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo (Italy, 2022) and at the Universidade de Brasília (Brazil, 2019).
Renata is currently a member of the European Sociological Association (ESA), the International Sociological Association (ISA), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS), the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and the Institut für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung (IPB). She was a board member of the Research Committee 47 of the International Sociological Association (2014-2018) and of the ESA Research Network on Risk and Uncertainty (2013-2014). Furthermore, she is a member of the editorial team of the Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais (since February 2021) and of Estudos Sociedade e Agricultura (since March 2021). In addition, she has been a Research Fellow at the Humanities Center for Advanced Studies 'Futures of Sustainability' at the University of Hamburg since October 2024.
Research
Her research is focused on the political sociology of Latin America. She draws on relational approaches to mobilization and demobilization in social movement studies as well as multiscale analytical frameworks. National units of analysis are always embedded in intra-, inter-, and transregional dynamics.
In the sociology of social inequalities, she has been developing theoretical and conceptual approaches, in particular the concept of global entangled inequalities. At the moment, her research applies such frameworks to the topic of food, which is at the core of her research group on socio-ecological change.
“Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy” combines theoretical perspectives on global inequalities with research on social movements against injustices in the agricultural and food systems. The research questions are examined through case studies in Europe (Germany) and Latin America (Brazil), using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Within gender studies, she investigates processes of solidarity building and coalitions between womens’ movements, feminist movements, and other social movements. She is interested in understanding the role of feminist movements as central actors of resistance to right-wing conservatism in Latin America, including crimes against land and environmental activists, and the struggle against sexist violence and femicide.
RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
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Participatory Research on Traditional Crops for Sustainable Food Systems (Mashua Case Study): This project develops and tests a participatory research model that bridges plant biology and social sciences to advance sustainable food systems. Using Tropaeolum tuberosum (mashua) as a case, the team integrates genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and phytochemistry with qualitative, community-engaged methods. Core goals are to (1) map best practices for participatory research in agri-food, (2) co-design a mashua research plan with Indigenous and rural stakeholders, (3) hold a virtual knowledge-exchange to surface priorities, barriers, and uses, and (4) produce a protocol for free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) and participatory workshops for future plant-science projects. Outputs include a co-authored article, public communication materials, a participatory research protocol, and a cluster event with GreenRobust -- contributing to biodiversity, resilience, and legitimacy in crop domestication and breeding.
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Kitchen and Garden: Homemaking Practices of Latin American Activists: The project examines how Latin American activists use kitchens, gardens, and land occupations to create future-oriented, utopian homes. It focuses on working-class actors involved in collective land and housing efforts in Brazil and Argentina, highlighting homemaking as a form of social and ecological transformation. The study explores the connections between land, food, politics, and community, emphasizing activism’s role in shaping new ideas of home and belonging.
Completed Research Projects
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“Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy”" is a junior research group funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (2019-2025). “Food for Justice” looks into social mobilization targeted at injustices in food systems and into social and political innovations that address inequalities undermining food security such as class, gender, race, ethnicity, or nationality. From 2019 to 2022, the project was based at the Institute for Latin American Studies of Freie Universität Berlin. With Renata Motta's transfer to the HCIAS, the “Food for Justice” research group has also begun its work here in February 2023.
Recent Publications
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Recent Presentations and Media Contributions
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Teaching
Semester April - July 2026
- Seminar: Blackness and Whiteness in Brazilian cinema and scholarship
- HCIAS Master's Colloquium
- Lecture Series & HCIAS Colloquium
DOCTORAL SUPERVISION
Mariana Calcagni: „Food Justice movements in Latin America and Europe: towards a new food regime”. Freie Universität Berlin.
Eryka Galindo: „Feminist agroecology and food sovereignty“. Freie Universität Berlin, BMBF-Nachwuchforscher*innengruppe.
Lea Zentgraf: „Sociology of food and gender: women's claims and repertoires in Food Movements in Germany”; Freie Universität Berlin, BMBF-Nachwuchforscher*innengruppe.
Marian Orjuela: „Amazonian Women's Power: The Pursuit of Gender Justice in Contexts of Multi-sided Violence and conflict”. Heidelberg University, HCIAS doctoral research group “Communication and Society in Ibero-America”.
Anne Ziegler: „Die Rolle von (Gemeinschafts-)Gärten in afro-indigenen Kosmovisionen, Territorien und Identitätsverhandlungen in Quilombo-Gemeinschaften rund um Belo Horizonte, Brasilien“. Heidelberg University, CRC 1671 Heimat(en).
For inquiries about doctoral project supervision, please reach out to the HCIAS Doctoral Program coordination at doctorate(at)hcias.uni-heidelberg.de.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Renata Motta
Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies | HCIAS
Brunnengasse 1 69117, Heidelberg
Tel: +49 (0)6221 54-19327
Email: renata.motta(at)uni-heidelberg.de
Visiting address:
Brunnengasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg
Room 005 (3012.00.005)
Office Hours
Thursdays 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Only with prior registration under renata.motta(at)uni-heidelberg.de