Enrique Mejia researches the social-ecological consequences of anthropogenic nitrogen loading resulting from export-oriented soybean monoculture in Argentina

Mejia’s research investigates embodied nitrogen flows within international soybean trade and the social-ecological consequences of such exchanges from a historical and political economic perspective.

Influenced by historical institutionalism, economic history, and political ecology, his work aims to elucidate the nuances and relations between exogenous and endogenous forces shaping the soybean narrative accelerating across Latin America; where the case of Argentina is put into focus. The nitrogen aspect of his research is grounded in the alarms raised by planetary boundaries research.

Mejia is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Economic History and International Relations at Stockholm University and a member of the Resilience Research School at Stockholm Resilience Centre.

He works within the project "Unequal Exchange and Agrofood Globalization: Nitrogen, Soybeans and Latin America” funded by the Jan Wallanders and Tom Hedelius Foundation as well as the Tore Browaldhs Foundation. The project is headed by researchers from the Department of Economic History and International Relations, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies.

Mejia comes from a transdiciplinary background with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology; Minor in Environmental Science from San Jose State University and a Master of Science in Human Ecology from Lund University. The red thread of his academic career is an interest in agricultural history, globalization, power relations, and social-ecological systems.

Mejia has participated in a number of sustainability and food system related workshops both in the US and Sweden as well as conferences in the field of economic history. He is invited yearly to guest lecture for the Centre for Environment and Development Studies at Uppsala University.

Mejia has over a decade of working in the food and hospitality industry which has immensely shaped his passion for food systems, sustainability, and working-class representation. This experience led to the development of invaluable social and cultural skills, such as the ability to open unreserved dialogue with people from all walks of life.

Awards and achievements

• Donationsstipendium, Stockholms universitet: Rhodin Stiftelse (2020/2021)

Supervision

• Matilda Baraibar (Department of Economic History and International Relations)
• Lisa Deutsch (Stockholm Resilience Centre and Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies)