Freedom Tours Wageningen and Migrantour Utrecht have been shortlisted for the 2026 Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Transdisciplinary Research Award, recognizing innovative projects that connect research, education, and public engagement.
Since 2021, these initiatives have turned cities into “living classrooms,” exploring how migration, gender, sexuality and disability intersect with identity, heritage, rights and belonging. The projects, supported by CSPS’s and GEO’s Meghann Ormond and Chizu Sato, involve local residents with diverse backgrounds and experiences as co-creators of public educational walking tours. Through months-long participatory design and research processes using participatory mapping, creative storytelling methods, archival research, and intercultural dialogue, they together actively produce knowledge about how people and places are remembered, contested, and made meaningful.
The co-created tours in Wageningen and Utrecht showcase how universities can work collaboratively with local community members and organisations to foster civic learning, participation, and reflection. So far, more than 2250 people – students, local residents, municipal and national civil servants, and city council members – have taken the tours. And new tours are currently being developed in both cities with co-creators – many of whom can be seen in the photo and are introduced in the websites below.
These projects are also made possible thanks to ongoing collaboration with and support from Stichting Collective Nouns’ De Voorkamer, Gemeente Utrecht, the international Migrantour network, de bblthk, Wageningen Inclusief, Thuis, Gemeente Wageningen, Shout Wageningen, Vrijheidskwartier, WUR’s Diversity & Inclusion and Learning Ecosystem Wageningen, among many others.
Being shortlisted for the WUR Transdisciplinary Research Award not only recognises how participatory collaborations like Migrantour Utrecht and Freedom Tours Wageningen are actively transforming approaches to public pedagogy but also acknowledges the incredible energy, knowledge, and commitment needed from so many people to develop and nourish transdisciplinary research and peer-learning.
All shortlisted teams will pitch their projects to a WUR audience at Omnia on 6 March at 11:00, with the audience selecting the winner. That means we need as many people as possible to attend and support us! Registration is required – you can sign up via this link.
Find out more about the projects:
Centre for Space, Place and Society 