Teaching

I am involved in the Global Sustainability Sciences bachelor programme:

• Teacher in The science of food systems course (Sustainable and healthy food track).
• Coordinator of, and teacher in, the new Transforming Food Systems (Sustainable and healthy food track).
• Supervisor of Bachelor thesis projects.

I also supervise Sustainable Development Master thesis projects.

Bachelor and Master thesis topics

I would like to work with Master and Bachelor Thesis students interested in:

• Case study research (also international comparative) on public policies and private governance initiatives aimed at enhancing agricultural sustainability (see for instance Dik et al. (2023), Lee et al. (2019), Giomi et al. (2018), and Runhaar et al. (2017).
• Case study research into attempts to agree on new visions or missions for agri-food systems. I am particularly interested in the Dutch ‘Landbouwakkoord’: how was it governed and why did it not result in an agreement? See for instance Runhaar (2020) for a case that did succeed.
• Case study of the transition towards organic agriculture in Austria. What explains why government and supermarkets decided to collaborate with farmers to promote organic agriculture? And what lessons can be learned from that?
• Case study research (also international comparative) on attempts to promote and upscale agroecological practices. This links to the PhD project by Laura Bello Cartagena MSc. See for instance Schoonhoven and Runhaar (2018).
• Case study research (also international comparative) on attempts to stimulate or force supermarkets to enlarge the assortment of sustainable and healthy food products. This links to the PhD project by drs. Frits Kremer.
• Surveys of citizens to explore valuation of agricultural biodiversity and other aspects of agricultural sustainability and citizens’ willingness contribute via consumption, voting behaviour, etc. See for instance Beekman et al. (2022) and Runhaar et al. (2019).
• Systematic literature review on food system stability and change, focusing on (a) conceptualisations (e.g., regime lock-in/resilience and regime lock-out/transformation/regime destabilisation); (b) factors and mechanisms that explain food system stability and change; (c) methods employed; (d) geographies and sectors covered. See for instance El Bilali (2018).
• Systematic literature review on European Union agrifood policy-making, focusing on analyses of attempts to ‘green’ the Common Agricultural Policy, initiatives such as the EU Green Deal and Farm to Fork Strategy, and policy (in)coherence. See for instance Gravey et al. (2022), Alons (2017), and Erjavec and Erjavec (2015).

• Analysing Governance Practices
• Research Design SD
• Research Strategies ESG
• Sustainable Land Use