Birgit Boogaard works at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group at Wageningen University (WUR), where she teaches courses on African Philosophy and Social Justice, Technology and Development (see Education). Her teaching style can be described as interdisciplinary, creative, dialogical, intercultural, transformative, critical, reflective, enthusiastic, and passionate.
In 2023 she was awarded national Teacher of the Year in the Netherlands, (see Awards and In the media). In honour of this award, she received a stone in WUR’s Walk of Fame, which includes a quote of prof Mogobe Ramose “Education for liberation is the direst need of our time”
The quote is part of a message of appreciation by professor Mogobe Ramose:
“I remain very impressed with [her] creativity in [her] approach to teaching. It gives me great pleasure that in that way [she has] succeeded to attract students to other ways of reasoning and seeing the world. I do hope and wish that this opening up will inject open-mindedness in them and even lead to critical introspection on their part. Education for liberation is the direst need of our time and every contribution in that direction is very much appreciated.” – Mogobe Ramose
Birgit has an interdisciplinary PhD in Rural Sociology and Animal Science from Wageningen University. She was post-doctoral researcher at the International Livestock Research Institute, for which she lived two years in Mozambique(see Bio & CV).
With her interdisciplinary background, Birgit aims for substantial integration of philosophy, social sciences, and natural sciences. Her research interests include African philosophy, agriculture, food systems transformation, endogenous development, epistemic justice, indigenous knowledge, and knowledge diversity (see Research).
Her professional experience as illustrator is reflected in her visualisations for lectures as well as research publications (see Illustrations).
