Institute of Development Studies

Biography

Thesis: Framing Tree and Soil Management in the Ethiopian Highlands. Ways of
Knowing of Farmers and Scientists in Agroforestry Projects.

Birgit has a magister-degree in ecology from Vienna University with research and study periods at the University of Lund, Sweden and Peshawar University, Pakistan. Furthermore, she holds an MSc degree in Agroforestry from the University of Wales Bangor (UK). She has 9 years of work experience in the field of research capacity development: she has been working as team leader and coordinator of the Commission for Development Studies (KEF), then based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, in the field of research policy and capacity development, funding research for development and research partnerships. Prior to her position at KEF, she has worked as programme coordinator for the development of the International Masters Programme in Mountain Forestry at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU), and as coordinator of the Austrian focal point of the European Tropical Forest Research Network (ETFRN). In the last 10 years, she has been repeatedly involved in research projects in agroforestry, forest ecology and social research in forest management in different parts of the world.

Research Interests
Her current research interests are the ambiguities, dynamics and uncertainties that arise when farmers and scientists meet in agroforestry research projects, specifically with regards to their ways of knowing and their epistemologies. She is particularly interested in the social worlds of farmers and scientists, and how issues of power and politics emerge at the interfaces between farmers and scientists.
Project Ways of Knowing: www.nas.boku.ac.at/14050.html  

Thematic Expertise

Agriculture; Environment; Science and Society.