Teaching

IMG_5166I teach various courses within Wageningen University’s bachelor and master programmes in International Development Studies. Most of the courses I am involved in focus on conflict and disaster studies.

Supervision
I supervise Bachelor, Master and PhD students who are in the process of writing their theses. I am interested in supervising students who seek to critically study local dynamics of development and conflict. I am interested in questions such as: What does crisis mean in different circumstances?; How do narratives and labels of crisis impact and condition intervention?; How do external interventions reverberate in the everyday lives of people?; How are power and authority performed and enacted by state and non-state actors?; What role do (natural) resources play in claims of belonging and identity? Examples of thesis topics that I would welcome to supervise are:

  • Borders and borderlands
  • Everyday perceptions and governance of security and insecurity
  • Regional integration and transnationalism
  • Linkages between (small) local conflicts and big politics
  • Migration and identities in a world on the move
  • Natural resource management and conflict (fisheries, pastoralism, extractives)

I have the pleasure to supervise the following Ph.D. students:

  • Alexandra Krendelsberger (Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University. Co-supervised with Han van Dijk and Francisco Alpizar)
  • Amagoin Keita (Sociology of Development and Change, Wageningen University. Co-supervised with Han van Dijk.
  • Kayumba Jean-Paul (Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University. Co-supervised by Esther Marijnen and Robert Fletcher).
  • Vincent Habumugisha (Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University. Co-supervised by Robert Fletcher)

I am proud to have previously supervised:

Courses

Perspectives and Themes in International Development Studies (Obligatory introduction course into the Master International Development Studies, co-taught with many colleagues from across the social sciences, SDC-36306).
What is International Development Studies and why do we need it? As will become clear, this first common course of the Master International Development (MID) offers a few of the many different answers to these two seemingly straightforward questions. The issue of ‘Development’ emerged after the Second World War and the independence of colonized countries and was typically concerned with debates on how to intentionally improve people’s lives in areas where people struggle with issues of social, political, and economic inequalities and poverty. The interdisciplinary field of Development Studies emerged in its wake and has ever since fiercely debated and critiqued these intentional programs and policies. Over the decades, international development as practice, as well as a field of study, kept growing while the many critiques on developmental programs have not subsided and the many pressing issues that the world is confronted with continue to outpace appropriate responses. The ‘Perspective and Themes Course’ approaches this vast field from the idea that ‘International Development Studies’ is broadly concerned with the many interdependencies that characterize our world. The vision of the course is that students develop an open, critical, and nuanced view of interdependent global challenges and their proposed solutions in a reflexive and collaborative way, rooted in solidarity and equality.

Fieldwork in Conflict and Post-Conflict settings (MSc elective course open to PhD students; together with Peter Tamas) (SDC-51306)
Fieldwork in societies characterized by violence or conflict involves a number of methodological challenges of a practical and more philosophical nature. This course helps students prepare for these challenges by developing a responsible attitude towards the research project from its design through to the writing process. Processes of post-conflict reconstruction or transition are often marked by various forms of violence, contested authority, intense but often non-linear institutional, social and economic change, and a high density of external interventions that reverberate on the lives of people. Students learn that field research involves juggling considerations of access, safety, analysis, and framing. The course prepares students to reflect on the conditions of collecting data and the subsequent construction of knowledge on and within contexts characterized by violence, crisis or conflict. Students are invited to apply constructivist perspectives on —predominantly qualitative— research methods and are expected to reflect on the implications of those methods for approaching violent and conflict-affected dynamics.

Political Sociology for Development (Bachelor course, together with Jessica Duncan) (RSO-21306)
Working in international development settings will confront you with the politics of projects, the unexpected ways in which people mobilize resources, and the inventive translation of opaque policies. This course touches upon these topics by zooming in on discourses and theories of participation. There is a crisis in the legitimacy of political systems and of development policies around the world and now, more than ever, different forms of participation are needed to sustain democratic processes. Knowledge about the use and abuse of participatory approaches is thus a key competence for working in international environments. This course introduces students to a number of key theoretical concepts in political sociology and anthropology, including power, legitimacy, governance, conflict and solidarity, patron-client relations, gender politics, and governmentality. Each week we tackle a new theme and assign groups a current event to analyze using the course literature and lectures.

Previously taught at WUR:

Food Crisis: The Big Picture (Bachelor and Master elective course, together with Bram Jansen) (SDC-51806)
Since time immemorial, people have been plagued by food crises. However, the nature of food crises has changed. Where pre-industrial famines were caused by natural disasters and exhaustion of existing production capacities, fossil fuels and technical science have relaxed these constraints. Modern food crises thus tend to be caused by a combination of natural conditions, failing policies and man-made conflicts. The thinking about what governments and international organisations can do to prevent or alleviate food crises has also evolved during last decades. Amartya Sen’s entitlements theory has been particularly influential, shifting the attention from food supply to poverty and stressing the importance of democratic institutions for preventing famines. Sen’s theory also played a major role in the criticism of the Green Revolution. The course focuses on these important debates and its shifts over time in order to understand, for instance, why famine has largely been eradicated in much of Asia, and why it has remained endemic in large parts of Africa. The lectures start with a general introduction in the physical and social aspects of food crises, and how we measure them. Then we chart the history of famines and economic development, and discuss the main debates around Sen’s entitlements theory and the Green Revolution. Next we examine the specific causes of contemporary and continuing food crises and the ways in which international organizations approach this problem. In the practical sessions student groups will examine contemporary policies towards intervening in an actual food crisis.

Please contact me for more information about my teaching portfolio, course outlines and/or copies of my student evaluations.

Previously taught at the Centre for International Conflict – Analysis and Management