Course
Conservation Research and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives - 4 ECTS
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the broad ranges of approaches to the practice and policy of biodiversity conservation present in different chair groups across the university. While many of us are centrally concerned to research and support conservation, we do so from quite diverse perspectives, and currently there is very little dialogue or direct cooperation across the different silos.
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the broad ranges of approaches to the practice and policy of biodiversity conservation present in different chair groups across the university. While many of us are centrally concerned to research and support conservation, we do so from quite diverse perspectives, and currently there is very little dialogue or direct cooperation across the different silos. This course is intended to help bridge these divides by integrating perspectives from a wide variety of different disciplines in a coherent curriculum. Cross-fertilization of different lecturers but also students from different backgrounds and fields will provide the basis for a fruitful dialogue concerning similarities and differences among different approaches that students can use as a platform upon which to build their own research plans. The course will be organized around different disciplinary interventions concerning the same set of central questions:
- What are the main objectives of conservation research and practice?
- What main theoretical frameworks guide this research? How do these relate to objectives?
- What research methods are employed? How do these relate to both objectives and theoretical frameworks?
Learning outcomes:
After successful completion, participants are expected to be able to:
- Conceptualize the overarching landscape of global conservation policy and practice
- Understand the similarities and differences among various approaches to biodiversity conservation across different research fields
- Describe the connections between different desciplinary perspectives and methodologies
- Apply specific concepts and methods to empirical case research
Activities:
- lectures (50%) on the skills needed and deepening the skills obtained;
- daily reflection essays (20%) applying the skills obtained
- final essay (25%) applying the skills obtained
Target group and min/max number of participants:
PhD candidates from a variety of different fields, Min: 10 students, Max: 25 students.
Assessment:
Final essay situating their PhD research within the course content
Programme
Session 1: Toward democratic conservation: People, preferences and principles (6 May; 13:00-16:00)
FEM (Douglas Sheil)
Session 2: Area-based conservation in the Anthropocene: a social-ecological approach
WEC (Arash Ghoddousi, Femke Broekhuis, Dominic Martin) (9 May; 13:00-16:00)
Session 3: Human-nature relationships, conservation and policy making
FNP (Georg Winkel, Sabrina Dressel) (13 May; 13:00-16:00)
Session 4: Conservation Behaviour in Life Sciences
BHE (Marc Naguib, Lysanne Snijder) (16 May; 13:00-16:00)
Session 5: The value of convivial planetary commons in terms of wilderness conservation
GEO (Edward Huijbens) (19 May; 13:00-16:00)
Lecture 6: Community-based forest management and conservation
DEC (Erwin Bulte) (22 May; 13:00-16:00)
Lecture 7: Conservation politics and social justice
SDC (Esther Marijnen, Robert Fletcher, Bram Büscher) (26 May; 13:00-16:00)
Session 8: Course Conclusion: Challenges and Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Collaboration (5 June; 13:00-16:00)
Multiple instructors
Course fee
| WGS PhDs with an approved TSP | 300 |
| a) All other PhD candidates b) Postdocs and staff of the above mentioned Graduate Schools | 640 |
| All others | 900 |