Curriculum Vitae

Valerie Liebs studied cultural and physical anthropology at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz. In the frame of her master thesis on medicinal plant knowledge and its transmission amongst Fulbe healers, she spent 3 months of fieldwork in northwestern Benin. For her PhD on the use of medicinal plants in strongly urbanized contexts, Valerie Liebs spent a total of 15 months in Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo). The field stays were funded by DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst). The PhD project was supported by Stipendienstiftung Rheinland Pfalz. Valerie Liebs taught "Urbanity in Africa" at Georg-August-University Göttingen, where she successfully finalized her thesis in 2017. She is currently studying the impact of the program "Knowledge for Tomorrow - Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa" on the careers of young African scientists. She furthermore coordinates the project "Livelihood Management, Reforms and Processes of Structural Change" which funded by the Volkswagen Foundation “Knowledge for Tomorrow” initiative.