Current RLC Bonn PhD students
Irene Ojuok
Irene Ojuok from Kenya joined the RLC Campus Bonn in September 2020. Her research focusses on the land restoration technique Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), pioneered by 'Alternative Nobel Prize' Laureate Tony Rinaudo. Over the next 3 years, Irene will be working together with Rinaudo as well as with World Vision Kenya who have been a key champion of scaling up community driven FMNR with the support of the Kenyan government.
Ahmed Abdalla
Ahmed Abdalla from Egypt joined the RLC Campus Bonn in September 2019. His studies focus on the impacts of short-food-supply chains on food safety, security and sustainable development policies. During his 3-year PhD scholarship, Abdalla will work together with Egyptian based development initiative SEKEM which received the “Right Livelihood Award” in 2003.
Dorothy Birungi
RLC Bonn PhD candidate Dorothy Birungi from Uganda joined the Campus in August 2018. Her PhD thesis "Agroecological Intensification of smallholder farming systems through perennial Pigeon pea/Sorghum husbandry in Northern Uganda" is linked to the larger project "Perennial polyculture farming in Uganda: Towards increased sustainability, resilience and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Among others, Birungi works together with the Land Institute, Kansas, USA who received the Right Livelihood Award in 2000.
Amit Kumar
Mr. Amit Kumar from India joined RLC Campus Bonn in August 2016. In the framework of his Phd project on "Urban Citizenship: An ANT Study of People-without-Papers living in unrecognised slums of Mumbai", he works together with RLA Laureate Medha Patkar and her organization Ghar Banao Ghar Bachao Aandolan in the slums of Mumbai. Amit's research aims at the alternative imagination to the existing urban structures in relation to globalization.
Alejandro Mora Motta
Alejandro Mora Motta from Colombia joined RLC in August 2015 to research "Fundamental human needs in the context of extractive forestry plantations in Los Rios, Chile". In 2016-2017 he pursued his field work in Chile, in collaboration with RLA Lureate Professor Dr. Manfred Max-Neef. His empirical research focused on how the territorial transformation caused by the extractive forestry model has impacted on the peasant well-being and the local sustainability in rural Los Rios.
Evelyn Ewere
Evelyn Ewere from Nigeria joined the RLC Bonn in August 2017 to work on her PhD research on "Bioeconomic Transformation in Nigeria: its impacts and sustainability". She will colloborate with RLA Laureate Nnimmo Bassey and the RLC Campus Port Harcourt in Nigeria. Her research interest is driven primarily by the need of reducing Nigeria's dependence on fossil fuels with its attendant price shocks and environmental challenges.
RLC Bonn PhD Graduates
Juliet Wanjiku Kamau
Juliet Wanjiku Kamau from Kenya is a PhD researcher in Bonn working on "Productivity and Sustainability of Ecological Organic Agriculture Systems in Kenya" in cooperation with RLA Laureate Hans Herren's Biovision Africa Trust.
Willis Okumu
Willis Okumu from Kenya completed his PhD at the RLC Campus Bonn in 2016 on the topic "Inter-community vs. Inter-clan Violence in Samburu North and Kuria Eastdistricts in Kenya: a Comparative Analysis of Development Challenges".
Divya Swaminathan
Divya Swaminathan from India did her PhD research on "Traditional knowledge, smallholder natural resource usage and NGOs working in India". She graduated in 2016.
Lai Wan Teng
Lai Wan Teng from Malaysia received the first RLC Bonn PhD scholarship. She did research on "Patterns of migrant integration in Penang, Malaysia" in cooperation with RLA Laureates Irene Fernandez and Prof. Anwar Fazal. She graduated in 2017.
