Nico Wilkins is a doctoral researcher at MESH and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. His research is situated within the Collaborative Research Center Future Rural Africa. His dissertation will examine social-ecological transformation and future-making in the Barotse Floodplain of western Zambia.

Nico holds a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Cologne (2025) and a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and Germanic Studies from the University of Chicago (2022). His thesis research at both institutions explored how white Namibians discursively engage with conservation and the natural environment to navigate shifting sociopolitical dynamics, guilt, and belonging. Nico was previously a research assistant in the project Transborder Mobility and Institutional Dynamics at the University of Cologne. During his time in Chicago, he worked as a research assistant in the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices Project and at the Field Museum of Natural History’s Center for Repatriation.

Contact: nwilkin1[at]uni-koeln.de