Lilian Beck, M.Sc.

Lilian Beck, M.Sc.

Doctoral candidate (extern)

Lilian is currently conducting her PhD project at the Institute for Social Sciences of Agriculture at the University of Hohenheim on "Inter-organizational learning activities to boost agroforestry dissemination" and is facilitating a transdisciplinary action research with small-scale farmers in Cambodia in collaboration with the World Agroforestry Center holding a scholarship by ATSAF Academy. As part of the PhD program, she provided courses for local extension actors in Farmer Field School Facilitation and collaborated in developing educational materials for FiBL. Prior to this, Lilian had been working as a research associate at University Kassel, coordinating the postdoc fellowship program by VW Stiftung, facilitating participatory video and radio production with different stakeholders in agroecological projects and assisted in developing a PhD program on transdisciplinary research with academia from Russia and Kazakhstan. She also worked as an International Field Specialist for the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Cambodia, facilitating participatory processes to identify climate-smart agricultural approaches, and coordinating Farmer Field School implementation. Lilian also conducted action research on alternative extension services for the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as collaborative researcher and studied barriers to the adoption of agroecological approaches for her Master thesis with CIAT in Cambodia. Lastly, for her Bachelor's thesis, she undertook an Anthropological field study in an organic cotton cooperative in Kyrgyzstan.


Inter-organizational learning activities to boost agroforestry dissemination

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Lilian has a special interest in the farmer first approach, transdisciplinary action research, and participatory video making. Her focus study areas are indigenous cultures, agro-ethnology, agroecology, agroforestry, climate-smart agriculture, communication and extension.

Since 08/2024Research associate, Dissemination of agroforestry among farmers in the Sahel region (Mali, Burkina Faso and Senegal) Sustain Sahel project, Department of Agronomy in the Tropics and Subtropics (490e), University Hohenheim
Since 04/2022PhD student, supervised by Prof. Claudia Bieling and Dep. Societal Transition and Agriculture, University of Hohenheim and Dr. Delia Catacutan, World Agroforestry Center as scholar of the ATSAF Academy funded by BMZ
2021 - 2022Research associate and coordination, Faculty of Organic Agricultural Sciences, University of Kassel
2019 - 2020International Field Specialist, FAO Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
2018 - 2019Collaborative Researcher, CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Cambodia
2017 - 2018

Preschool Teacher, Walddorfkindergarten Tübingen, Germany

3/2017 - 9/2017

Master’s Thesis and Field Study, CIAT International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, Cambodia
Topic: Action research on barriers to adoption agroecological approaches

2015 - 2019MSc Agroecology, SLU Swedish University of Agriculture, Sweden
2013 - 2014Field study for Bachelor thesis, Helvetas, Kyrgyzstan
Topic: Anthropological research on negotiation processes in an organic cotton cooperative
2011 - 2015BA Cultural Anthropology & Science of Education, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany
2013Assistant Project Management, International Centre for Organic Agriculture of Central and Eastern Europe, Ekoconnect, Germany
21.11.2024“Dissemination of Agroforestry in Cambodia-The crucial role of market development”, in “Strengthening local markets and value chains to overcome food poverty – perspectives from science and practice”, Workshop, Misereor, Berlin, Germany
11.09.2024“On-farm challenges and solutions for small-scale farmers to establish agroforestry: A case example from Cambodia”, Poster presentation, Tropentag 2024, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences für Bodenkultur (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
13.09.2024“Approaches to upscaling Agroforestry in the Tropics”, Workshop, Tropentag 2024, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences für Bodenkultur (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
13.09.2024“Let’s explore how to integrate gender sensitivity in agricultural research and projects.” Workshop, Tropentag Conference 2024, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences für Bodenkultur (BOKU), Vienna, Austria
11.07.2024“Doing science differently: Working across disciplines to advance agroecology”, Panel discussion, Workshop, Transformative Partnership Platform on Agroecology (Agroecology TPP), virtual
25.01.2024“Diving into the complexity of integrating gender sensitivity into fieldwork: Experiences and reflections from Cambodia”, Seminar, ZEF Gender Group Lecture, Zentrum für Entwicklungsforschung, Bonn, hybrid
01.11.2023“Can Agroecology feed the world?” Seminar, Science in Action Seminar series, CIFOR-ICRAF, virtual
21.09.2023“Collaborative learning to encourage adoption of agroecology: A participatory video-based farmer-to-farmer learning process in Cambodia”, Posterpräsentation, Tropentag Conference 2023, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in cooperation with the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
22.09.2023“Challenges to promoting agroforestry”, Workshop, Tropentag Conference 2023, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in cooperation with the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
18.01.-09.02.2023“Farmers' field schools and agroforestry dissemination events”, course for extension actors in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, Sustain Sahel project, The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, virtual
22.03.2022„Participatory approaches in agricultural projects“, workshop, Society for Sustainable Development, Witzenhausen, Germany
12/2021-04/2023“Scientific communication via participatory video production”,  course, the University of Kassel, virtual
18.-20.08.2019“Agroforestry”, workshop for Ministry and Department of Agriculture, non-governmental organizations, and farmers, Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, Banlung, Cambodia

Postal address:

University of Hohenheim
Institute of Social Sciences in Agriculture
Societal Transition and Agriculture (430b)
Schloss Museumsflügel (4.15/1C, 131)
70599 Stuttgart, Germany