Dagmar Schäfer, Director of Department III, edited (together with Francesca Bray, Peter Coclanis, and Edda Fields-Black) a book titled Rice. Global Networks and New Histories in 2015, published by Cambridge University Press. In this interview Professor Schäfer explains why rice is not only one of the most important crops in the world, but also an excellent object through which to study a material culture from a global perspective.