In this Short Symposium Claudio Minca, Alexandra Rijke, Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Martina Tazzioli, Darshan Vigneswaran, Henk van Houtum and Annelies van Uden reflect upon the growing relevance of biopolitical perspectives in camp studies, border studies, refugee studies and specifically in research at the intersection between mobility studies and political geography. This Symposium is the outcome of […]
WASS/ CSPS PhD course| ‘Early Spring’ School | Natural Resources and Conflict: Violence, Resistance and the State |Special Online Edition | March 1 -10, 2021
Growing pressures on natural resources –related to land and water grabbing and climate change-feed into concerns over natural resource conflict worldwide, making this a core issue in development studies today. Dominant paradigms frame the resource-conflict nexus in terms of scarcity, employing some form of causal reasoning. This course unpacks and critiques this reasoning, introducing a […]
MSc Course | A Global Sense of Place | March – April 2021, period 5
In the face of urgent environmental and societal challenges, how do we move towards inclusive futures? What is the role of people in places? And what can be our role as (social) scientists?
In this course, we explore inclusive place-based approaches to development.
Course | Alternative Research Methods: Remote Edition | 8 – 12 February 2021
OtherWise, a WUR critical student organization, is launching a third edition of the Alternative Research Methods Training on 8th-12th February. This extracurricular course is aimed at MSc students curious about diverse approaches to research. This time, the focus will be on doing research remotely. Course description How to conduct research in a world that is […]
Blog | Foodscapes in times of uncertainty #3 | The resilience of food banks during the COVID-19 pandemic
Members of the foodscapes cluster supervise a number of students who are looking at changing foodscapes in times of corona. We therefore introduce a blog series in which these students can share their work. This third blog is written by Paulien Dekkinga. Currently, the world faces a COVID-19 pandemic with many consequences in all parts of society. COVID-19 […]
Blog | Anti-Oppression Reading Group | White Innocence
On Thursday the 19th of November CSPS colleagues and friends met to discuss Gloria Wekker’s White Innocence. This was the second meeting in a series of reading groups organized by Dr. Sierra Deutsch with the CSPS Political Ecology research cluster. The mix of Dutch and international participants felt a lot of resonance with Wekker’s reading […]
Blog | Transformative Learning Hub on Climate Change | November 25, 2020
In the November 2020 gathering of the Transformative Learning Hub, we focused on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change. Two Hub members, Robin van der Sluijs and Dave Pendle, kindly volunteered to lead this session and share their knowledge, experience and practice. Together we explored different ways of engaging with climate change and […]
PhD Course | Advanced Qualitative Research Design & Data Collection | January 2021
Advanced Qualitative Research Design and Data Collection (GEO 56806) offers PhD candidates and advanced master’s students enrolled in the graduate programme: A fuller grasp of the analytical value of a range of qualitative methods relative to your own project’s research questions and epistemological/theoretical positioning The knowledge required to identify different methods’ particular logistical requirements and […]
Blog | Foodscapes in times of uncertainty | #2
The Transformative Power of Gardening: food literacy, connection and environmentally sustainable choices during COVID-19 By Jessica Breslau and Sofie de Wit Sparked by the covid19 pandemic food supply chains have been disrupted: food is more scarce, expensive, and difficult to access than before (OECD, June 2, 2020). Simultaneously, the pandemic has increased the number of […]
Blog | Foodscapes in times of uncertainty | #1
Members of the foodscapes cluster supervise a number of students who are looking at changing food(scapes) in times of corona. We therefore introduce a blog series in which these students can share their work. This first blog is written by Lisa Marijke van den Berg. How COVID-19 changed consumers’ motivations for local consumption Since the declaration […]
EVENT | ‘WILD’ IDEAS: DIALOGUES ON HUMAN-WILDLIFE INTERACTIONS IN A CHANGING WORLD | JAN 7 – FEB 4, 2020
We cordially invite you to participate in this exciting online four-part series on Human-Wildlife Interactions! PurposeThe purpose of the series is to facilitate cross-campus conversations and collaborations at WUR on human-wildlife interactions (HWIs) as they relate to broader issues of biodiversity loss and transformative change. Throughout the series we will explore how people at WUR […]
PhD Course | Critical Perspectives on Social Theory | March 23 – April 16, 2021
This PhD course gives participants an opportunity to intensively engage with some of the major foundational movements in critical social theory, so that they can continue to explore contemporary expansions of those movements in their own research. It is organized as an intensive discussion seminar over the course of four weeks (with two 3-hour sessions/week). […]
WASS PhD Course (4 ECTS)| Transformative & Participatory Qualitative Research Approaches & Methods | Feb – Mar 2021 |Online
Transformative & Participatory Qualitative Research Approaches & Methods provides PhD candidates and early-career scholars conceptual and hands-on methodological engagement with transformative, participatory and action research approaches that use creative and arts-based research methods and techniques to foster the inclusion and engagement of diverse, often marginalised perspectives and to bring into focus, examine and transform narratives, […]
Blog | Transformative Learning Hub on Anti-Oppression | October 28, 2020
The focus for the 28 October 2020 Transformative Learning Hub gathering was how to engage with anti-oppression in our research, teaching and societal engagement. Why Anti-Oppression? Prompted by the murder on George Floyd and the global growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, a dialogue with colleagues at CSPS resulted in the decision to adopt […]
Seminar | Activism in times of Covid-19 | Nov 9 & 16, 7 – 10 pm CET | Online
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 ‘𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐦’ 𝐚𝐧𝐝 ‘𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐭’ 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜? What are the challenges activists and marginalised groups face? How do Covid-19 restrictions deepen and disclose existing inequalities and injustices? How do physical distancing and quarantine life shape, limit and open up new avenues for activism and resistance? These questions are central […]
2020 CSPS Annual Day: Discovering our Fruits & Roots
The 2020 CSPS Annual Day was held online on 8 October 2020. The interactive session was organised around the metaphor of trees growing together in a forest. Imagine for a moment each CSPS member as an individual ‘tree’ within the broader CSPS and WUR ‘forest’, a superorganism of sorts in which we together grow, adapt […]
Course | Transformative Learning Online: Building & Facilitating Nurturing Learning Environments
One of teaching’s key objectives is to nurture students’ growth into active and informed citizens and changemakers, equipped with knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to creatively and critically respond to the complex challenges of our times. Yet many of our teaching practices in the realm of higher education are outdated, too often focusing […]
Research| The WUR Transformative Learning Hub
The Transformative Learning Hub (TL Hub) seeks to blur the boundaries conventionally drawn between research and teaching. Organised as a horizontal community of learners, it expressly brings together researchers, educators, students, changemakers and activists across different disciplines and fields at Wageningen University and beyond who are committed to engaging with transformative learning theory and practices […]
Anti-Oppression | Reading Group | Afropessimism
To kick off the CSPS Year of Anti-Oppression the Political Ecology reading group met on October 15th to discuss Frank Wilderson’s Afropessimism. Nine people attended the reading group from within and beyond CSPS, which signals a growing interest and commitment to exploring this topic together. Dr. Sierra Deutsch facilitated our meeting with the following ground […]
PhD Defense | Shaping Claims to Urban Land. An Ethnographic Guide to Governmentality in Bukavu’s Hybrid Spaces | Fons van Overbeek | October 14th, 2020 at 11 am CEST
In Bukavu, a rapidly growing city in the troubled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, neither claimants of land nor claimants of authority can solely rely on one identity or institution in order to secure their claims. Lasting recognition of claims requires constant renegotiation across a shifting diversity of competing individuals and their practices; […]
Black History (Achievement) Month| Lecture invitation | Geographies of slavery heritage tourism: places of remembrance and dialogue | by Emmanuel Adu-Ampong | Wednesday 14 Oct. 17.00 – 18.00 CEST
In an increasing multicultural society, the stories we tell of the past can bring us together or push us further apart. Through travel and tourism we encounter new cultures and perspectives on such stories of the past in certain places. The stories of slavery as told through slavery heritage tourism, is not merely ready-made but […]
PhD Defense | Grow, share or buy? Understanding diverse food economies of urban gardeners | by Lucie Sovová | October 13, 2020 at 1.30 pm CEST
How do urban gardens work as sources of food? That is, in a nutshell, the central question of this thesis. Urban gardening and other food alternatives have received growing attention in relation to issues such as food quality and the environmental impacts of food production. However, we know little about how urban gardens actually provide […]
Paper | The most marginalized people in Uganda? Alternative realities of Batwa at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. | By Christine Ampumuza, et al.
Ampumuza, C., Duineveld, M., René Van der Duim, R. (2020) The most marginalized people in Uganda? Alternative realities of Batwa at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. World Development Perspectives 20: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2020.100267 Indigenous peoples such as the Batwa in Uganda are predominantly seen as marginalised groups, leaving little room for foregrounding their power, influence and involvement in tourism and […]
Thesis opportunities | Foodscapes in times of uncertainty
The CSPS Foodscapes cluster is looking for BSc and MSc students interested in researching emerging foodscapes in times of uncertainty. Covid-19 has displayed many of the vulnerabilities and externalities of our current corporate food regime, such as unequal access to food, the dependence of our food supply on global supply chains, the exploitation of (migrant) […]
PhD Defense | Understanding the psychological and social environmental determinants driving young infant feeding practices among Rwandan households: a salutogenic approach | by Jeanine Ahishakiye | Tuesday Sept 8th, 11.00 am
For more information: https://www.wur.nl/nl/activiteit/Understanding-the-psychological-and-social-environmental-determinants-driving-young-infant-feeding-practices-among-Rwandan-households-a-salutogenic-approach.htm The defense will be livestreamed via the following link https://weblectures.wur.nl/P2G/Player/Player.aspx?id=C217
Political Ecology Reading Group | Anti-Oppression | first session on October 15th, 2020 at 4 pm CET
Political ecologists recognize that environmental issues are political and therefore intricately tied to social and economic issues. We also understand that such issues have shared (political) root causes and that addressing ecological problems means addressing social and economic problems at the structural level as well. And although the PE Reading Group has included readings by […]
PhD Course | Critical Gender Studies in the Life Sciences domain | Sept 8 – Oct 9, 2020
cover image by 帅 郭 via Pixabay For more information and to register: https://www.wur.nl/en/show/Critical-Gender-Studies-in-the-Life-Sciences-domains-.htm Introduction & objectives of the course Today, research in the life sciences done to support sustainable development is increasingly interdisciplinary and demands better understanding of roles of gender and other differences, such as race and colonial history. This course directly enables […]
Seminar | The Return of Anthropometry: Digital Positivism and the Body Politic | August 27th, 14.00 – 17.00 CET
Anthropometric determinism, the 19th century notion that the human body, individual personalities, cultural traits, and social groups can be reduced to numbers, is back. The critical social sciences were, essentially, forged alongside, and fighting against, this idea that informed pseudoscientific practices, namely Euro-American racist ideologies at the heart of so many anti-immigrant and refugee sentiments, […]
Blog | Resilience, reinvention and transition during and after quarantine | By Kristof Van Assche, Martijn Duineveld, S. Jeff Birchall, Leith Deacon, Raoul Beunen, Monica Gruezmacher, and Daan Boezeman
In the period of quarantine The Covid-10 crisis has isolated many people but it didn’t stop people from sharing stories about the situation and about what comes back after quarantine. In many countries one can witness a very contrasting set of discourses (see for an overview Matteo, 2020). Social cohesion and solidarity are praised, nationalists’ discourses […]
Blog| U.lab 2x | Integrating head, heart and hands in (online) teaching
Can online meetings be generative and energizing! Yes, they can! On June 10th, we had the fourth meeting of our U.lab 2x journey, in which teachers and students at Wageningen University explore how to integrate head, heart and hands in Higher Education. Since The Netherlands went into ‘intelligent lockdown’ mid-March, we have been organizing our […]