African Philosophy and the Politics of Food Systems

Birgit Boogaard works as a researcher and senior lecturer at the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (KTI) chair group of Wageningen University (WUR), where she teaches courses such as "African Philosophy" and "Social Justice, Technology and Development". Her courses have won multiple "Excellent Education Awards" at WUR and in 2022, she was awarded WUR's Teacher of the Year 2022. In 2023, she was awarded NAtional Teacher of the Year in the Netherlands. Her research interests include African philosophy, agriculture, food system transformation, international development, intercultural dialogues, and epistemic justice. She received her interdisciplinary PhD in Rural Sociology and Animal Sciences from Wageningen University. Previously, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), living in Mozambique for two years. With her interdisciplinary background, she aims at a substantial integration of philosophy, social sciences and natural sciences. She has published several academic articles in philosophy as well as social science journals, such as “The relevance of connecting sustainable agricultural development with African philosophy” in South African Journal of Philosophy and “Epistemic injustice in agricultural development: critical reflections on a livestock development project in rural Mozambique” in Knowledge Management for Development Journal. She was co-editor and co-author of the recently published book “The Politics of Knowledge in Inclusive Development and Innovation” (2021). 

Mogobe Bernard Ramose obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophy) degree from the Catholic University of Louvain (KUL) in Belgium. He holds a Master of Science degree (International Relations) from the University of London: The London School of Economics and Political Science. Ethics, African Philosophy and philosophy of law are his special areas of interest. He is research Professor in Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Department of Clinical Psychology, GaRankuwa South Africa. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Federation of Philosophical Societies.His book, African philosophy through ubuntu, is translated into Dutch. He has published many articles in peer-reviewed journals and as chapters in books. He is a widely quoted author.

Sally Diop is a master student in Plant Sciences at Wageningen University (WUR) with a particular interest in the philosophy and practice of knowledge integration. Her thesis research explores how various perspectives from African philosophy and academic systems thinking on agriculture can conjointly inspire an intercultural approach to international agricultural research for development.

Yeshewas Ebabu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Gondar, College of Social Sciences and Humanities. He received his BA and MA degrees in Philosophy and Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Human Rights Studies from Addis Ababa University. The title of his Ph.D. dissertation is “The Human Right to Food and the Post-1991 Ethiopian State’s Obligation: A Case Study on Simada Woreda and Gulele Sub-city” in which he investigated the state of the human right to food in varying socioeconomic contexts of Ethiopia, by taking rural (Simada) and urban (Gulele) as study cases, and the compliance of the Ethiopian state to its obligations to the right. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (WRI), Lund University (2018). His Research interest includes, socio-economic rights, right to food, food system governance, African Philosophy, and agriculture and technology. 

David Ludwig is an associate professor in at the "Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation" (KTI) chair group of Wageningen University and the principal investigator of the "Global Epistemologies and Ontologies" (GEOS) project. He works at the intersection of philosophy of science and development studies with a focus on knowledge diversity among heterogenous actors from Indigenous communities to academically trained scientists. David is passionate about critical thinking about development and about turning philosophical reflection into meaningful and collaborative action.