Bettina Engels has been Junior Professor for Empirical Conflict Research with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa since 2014. She is also co-director, together with Kristina Dietz, of the junior research group "Global Change - Local Conflicts? Land Conflicts in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa," and since 2021 she has been an Assistant Professor of African Politics and Societies at the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS).

After studying political science and psychology at the Universität Bremen and the Freie Universität Berlin, she received her PhD from the Otto Suhr Institute (FU Berlin) in 2010. Her work and research focuses on political economy and political ecology; rural change, social transformation; conflicts over land and mining; and additionally she has a regional focus on Africa and interregional comparative research.

Bettina Engels research focus is on:

• political economy and political ecology
• rural change, social transformation
• conflicts over land and mining
• Africa and interregional comparative research.

Current research project:

• "Globaler Wandel – lokale Konflikte? Landkonflikte in Lateinamerika und Subsahara-Afrika im Kontext interdependenter Transformationsprozesse (GLOCON)" (Global Change - local Conflicts? Land Conflicts in Latin America and Subsahara-Africa in the Context of Interdependent Transformation Processes) http://www.land-conflicts.net/