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L.G.M. (Laetitia) van den Bergen

PhD Candidate
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Anthropology of Health, Care and the Body
Area of expertise: Extractivism, resource materialities, phosphate, fertilizers, landscape structures, science and technology studies

Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postal address
  • Postbus 15509
    1001 NA Amsterdam
  • Profile

    Laetitia is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, working within the ERC-funded Vital Elements & Postcolonial Moves project (PI: Amade M’charek). Her research investigates how phosphate becomes fertilizer in the Gafsa mining basin (Tunisia), tracing the material and political life of phosphate across landscapes, bodies, and borders. She explores how the making of modern, chemical “fertility” is entangled with the creation of mines and industrial infrastructures, focusing on toxicity, ecological degradation, and the enduring legacies of (post)colonial extraction.

    Laetitia holds a BSc in Life Sciences and Philosophy (Erasmus University College, Rotterdam) and an MRes in Environmental Studies (EHESS, Paris). Her work bridges anthropology, science and technology studies, and environmental humanities, and is informed by prior collaborations with European, Indigenous, and Global South activists resisting fossil fuel infrastructures. These experiences continue to shape her commitment to studying extractivism through transdisciplinary, decolonial, and place-based approaches.

    Research expertise

    • Extractivism
    • resource materialities
    • phosphate
    • fertilizers
    • landscape structures
    • science and technology studies
  • Research

    Research methods

    • Participant observation
    • Qualitative interviews
    • Forensics as an art of paying attention
    • Trailing

    Current research projects

    • Making Fertilizers, Shaping Postcolonial Landscapes
      An ethnography of phosphate extraction and transformation in Gafsa, Tunisia, examining how phosphate becomes a resource through contested material, political, and ecological assemblages.
  • Teaching
    • Ethnographies & Academic Writings (1st semester 2025-2026)
  • Publications

    2021

    • van den Bergen, L. G. M., & van den Akker (2021). Biomimicry and Nature as Sympoiesis: A Case Study into Living Machines. Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology.

    2018

    • van den Bergen, L. G. M., & Derossi, N. (2018). The Visual Language of the Rotterdam Techno Scene. EUC Student Academic Journal , 142-154.

    Talk / presentation

    • van den Bergen, L. (speaker) (14-3-2025). From Mountain to Dust and Beyond: Conspiring with Phosphate Extraction’s Olfactory Legacies in Tunisia’s Mining Basin, STS hub 2025.
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    No ancillary activities