The Research Team

Thomas Dietz is Professor for International Relations and Law at the University of Münster. Before coming to Münster he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Institute of European and Comparative Law at the University of Oxford and a member of Wolfson College. Thomas holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Bonn and a PhD in Law from the University of Bremen, where he also worked as a research fellow at the Collaborative Research Center 597 “Transformations of the State”. His research is focused on the areas of International Politics, International Law and Sustainable Development.

Bernard Kilian is Professor for Microeconomics and Operations Management at the INCAE Business School and currently the Production and Research Manager for CIMS Foundation. He holds a doctoral degree in Environmental Resources Economics and a MA in Agricultural Sciences with emphasis in economics, both from Hohenheim University, Germany. Before joining INCAE, he was in charge of the economics portion of a national project in Germany called Precision Agriculture. At the same time, he taught graduate courses at Hohenheim University and was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota. He has led numerous market research studies for sustainable products in international markets.

Janina Grabs is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Münster. Her work focuses on the governance of sustainability in global value chains, with a special focus on the mainstreaming of sustainability certifications in the coffee sector.

Andrea Estrella is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster. Before joining TRANS SUSTAIN, she worked as Environment and Energy Technical Assistant at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Peru. Her research focuses on the environmental and socio-economic effectiveness of market-based sustainability and conservation initiatives.

Karla Rubio is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster. She has a broad experience working with development organizations in El Salvador, mostly in the monitoring and evaluation of social programmes and projects. She is interested in studying the determinants of the effectiveness of sustainability certificates at the producer level, especially for small producers.

Paulo Mortara Batistic is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster. Before joining TRANS SUSTAIN, he worked with coffee sustainability at 4C, in Germany. His research interests involve power struggles within the global coffee value chain and socio-environmental aspects of certifications and their effects on small producers.

Elisa Benker is a Masters student of European Affairs at Sciences Po Paris and Freie Universität Berlin. She is a Research Assistant for TRANS SUSTAIN and has written her Bachelor thesis on Direct Trade coffee schemes.

Laura Deal is a Masters student of National and Transnational Studies at the University of Münster. In TRANS SUSTAIN she is a Research Assistant currently working on developing policy briefs for VSS stakeholders.