Rizkyana Dipananda

Rizkyana Dipananda (known as Kyana) is the Director of Science-Policy-Society Interfaces at foodagogik. Her work strengthens the bridge between evidence, governance, and public legitimacy in the sustainable food systems transformation in Indonesia.

She is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam, jointly affiliated with the Department of Anthropology in the Amsterdam Institute of Social Sciences Research. She holds an MSc from Wageningen University and Research in International Development, with a stream in Environmental Policy. Her academic training grounds her in a career spanning nearly a decade across NGOs, donor institutions, and academia, with the intersection of marine and coastal systems, fisheries, climate change, and land-sea commodities.

Her PhD research is an ethnographic study of aquatic food systems in Madura, Indonesia, exploring how fish move through everyday life and what that reveals about social relationships, obligations, and forms of knowledge. Her work draws on feminist theory and methodology, centering women’s roles in fish consumption and the sensory knowledge embedded in everyday food practice. Her long-term research interests lie in coastal communities, aquatic food systems, foodways, and questions of justice in food and the environment.

Kyana enjoys reading historical fiction, long walks in the forest, and cooking new recipes. An avid traveler, she is convinced that a country's character is best read through its food stalls and grocery aisles.