"Moving to a foreign country in the middle of a pandemic with all the challenges that come with that especially with regard to restrictions on movement and meeting people was not a walk in the park. I was very lucky to get colleagues who, for me, are very supportive."

My name is Obeka Bonventure. I am currently pursuing my PhD in Sociology at TUM’s Department of Sociology of Diversity, under the supervision of Prof. Elisabeth Wacker. I hold a Master of Art in Sociology from Pwani University, in Kenya. I am very excited to pursue my doctoral studies and I feel at home with TUM because I get to work with various experts in my area of study, which makes it interesting to have a multidisciplinary approach. Looking at the past and current research activities at TUM, I was convinced that this would definitely be a good pick to horn my scientific skills with proper guidance from experts.

My research interests often focus on the society and the general holistic social wellbeing of humans in their environment. This to an extent explains my professional lean towards medical and environmental sociology. My doctoral research focus is on food security considering the current human wellbeing. Food security is an important aspect in improving the health of people. Moreover, it is with no doubt that food security is very critical in determining people’s productivity in achieving the economic viability and political stability of communities. Even though research has been ongoing in this area, we still face surmountable challenges especially with the steady increase of the number of undernourished parsons especially in developing countries. This therefore was my interest in choosing this topical area so as to make a reconciliation between food security and sustainable land use patterns in Kenya.

Unfortunately, the current global corona situation has not made things that easy. Having to travel in the midst of this pandemic at a time when states had heightened the guard for infection possibility was bitter sweet. Sweet in the sense of getting the experience of a lifetime to travel when everyone absolutely scared. Looking at how flights took extra care to make everyone safe was just humbling. Bitter, because I did over twelve hours in a mask. That was very uncomfortable and a constant reminder of how dire the situation was, and that a small mistake would be very costly. Moving to a foreign country in the middle of a pandemic with all the challenges that come with that especially with regard to restrictions on movement and meeting people was not a walk in the park. I was very lucky to get colleagues who, for me, are very supportive. Nevertheless, I am glad that the circumstances are way better and we returning some level of normalcy, albeit slowly.

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