Romain Duda is leading anthropological research in central Africa focusing on relations between societies and their environment, notably human-animal interactions.
Postdoctoral researcher at Institut Pasteur since november 2018, he is involved within MICROTONE project, a study at the interface of historical anthropology, ethnozoology and the emergence of zoonotic diseases. In this interdisciplinary context, he is leading with Tamara Giles-Vernick (Pasteur) and Victor Narat (CNRS) an analysis of humans-animals contacts along a gradient of ecological change in a forest-savanna mosaic in Democratic Republic of Congo (Bolobo territory).
MSc in Ethnoecology of the French Museum of Natural History, Romain has completed a PhD in Anthropology & Environmental Sciences at the UAB (Barcelona) with a codirection by the Musée de l’Homme (Paris). Since 2012, he has conducted several fieldworks in Cameroon, Congo and DRC among different hunter-gatherers groups, so-called ‘indigenous’ or ‘Pygmies’ (Baka, Bayaka, Batwa). His research among the Baka focused on the changes in the sociocultural aspects of hunting & relations to wildlife and conservation strategies. In 2018, he has worked as a freelance researcher in the Likouala (Northern Congo) to propose adapted solutions to improve healthcare & rights access to Bayaka communities, and in DRC to provide an anthropological perspective during the Ebola outbreak that affected the Equateur province.