Anna Schäfer is a doctoral student in the interdisciplinary research project "Commodifying the Wild" at the University of Cologne. After completing a dual Bachelor's degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology and French Linguistics and Literature at the University of Cologne, she continued her studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology in Cologne in a Master's degree with a focus on human-environment relations and museum anthropology. Following her master's thesis on wild herbs and their significance for urban "wilderness" and urban human-environment relationships, she is now researching essential oils and the emergence of "wild" resources as well as the commercialization of "wilderness" in the cosmetics industry. The current working title of the research is "S(m)elling the Wild: The Political Ecology of Arboreal Essential Oils and the Making of Olfactory Resources.” In addition to the imminent publication of her master's thesis, Anna has already worked on small ethnographic film projects, some of which have also been published.

The GSSC offers a network of international junior and senior researchers and the opportunity to connect with many different people from various disciplines on a professional as well as personal level. This opens an interdisciplinary space of exchange for inspiration, mutual support, and good progress.

The research project considers biotechnological processes and associated property rights involved in (re)producing “wild” essential oil resources, whether in the lab or on plantations (“real subsumption”), and by focusing on the role of olfactory and marketing experts in processing pharmaceutical, wellness, and cosmetics products in Southern Africa, Germany, France, and/or the United Kingdom, as well as marketing strategies toward products with “wild” and exotic ingredients. This will involve ethnographic research with actors in essential oil value chains, focusing on questions of storage, labelling, and transport 10 (Jankowski, Protzen, & Protzen, 2016), as well as engaging perfumers and chemical engineers in the cosmetics industry. Research will take place in labs and in the field, where we intend to follow bio-prospectors, connoisseurs, and olfactory experts in their search for new, “wild” and “authentic” fragrances and their valuation practices.