Dr. Christina Bantle
The content on this page was translated automatically.
From ice cream saleswoman to IFBC student
Dr. Christina Bantle (photo Wessolek) - MSc International Food Business and Consumer Studies, graduated 2011.
Currently: Academic Assistant in the Department of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainable Development, Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences.
Actually, I wanted to make ice cream, delicious varieties from milk from happy cows. In 2007, I worked on an organic farm in Canada for a few months and learned how to make ice cream there. The start of my career in Germany was then sobering - working when others eat ice cream? I obviously hadn't thought that through enough. In my previous job, I had explored downtown Hanover with young people from a perspective critical of consumption and globalization, and I liked that. So I was looking for a place in Germany where creative educational work with global references was being implemented and where I could get involved. Someone told me about the tropical greenhouse in Witzenhausen. I got in touch with the curator of the greenhouse, Marina Hethke, and took the train to Hesse. The tropical greenhouse was impressive, Marina full of energy, I liked the place. On a door I saw a note with four letters: IFBC. I went closer: International Food Business and Consumer Studies. That sounded good. And it had something to do with ice cream. Food and all. I saw an opportunity to get back into educational work in one place at the same time, and to do a master's degree to boot. So I applied for a place on the course, made it clear in the selection process that a first degree in landscape architecture and environmental planning would be an excellent basis for the IFBC, and began my studies in the winter semester of 2008.
Study and try
We were a small cohort, maybe 15 people, and as German students in the minority. The title "Food" in the study program had brought together food-savvy people from all over the world. We went to lectures, opened international study groups, and tasted our way through international dishes prepared in the dorm kitchens. For much of the time, we were a Syrian-Albanian-Zimbabwean-Russian-Indian-German group that was always enriched by students from other nations. We ate, discussed the sense and nonsense of "organic", celebrated. On Monday morning, my fellow students and I stood together freezing at the train station in Eichenberg to travel to Fulda. At the same time, I worked in the tropical greenhouse - after all, that's why I had come to Witzenhausen!
After my master's degree, I had the opportunity to do my doctorate under Professor Ulrich Hamm, for which I stayed in Witzenhausen. In the process, I changed sides in the lecture hall and was now a lecturer in the IFBC. In the exchange with the students I was fully in my element. At the end of my doctoral period, Professor Hamm drew my attention to a job advertisement at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde. The position seemed made for me. And apparently it was, because I was accepted and worked there from 2015, initially as a visiting professor for three years, and for a further three years as an academic employee with a focus on teaching.
Long live diversity!
The professional knowledge from my studies and doctorate are the basis of what I did in Eberswalde until recently: Namely, mainly teaching on marketing for organic food and on sustainable nutrition. But all the other experiences in Witzenhausen have shaped how I taught: Our diverse, international IFBC cohort taught me to appreciate the diversity among students and the great added value of heterogeneous groups. In my teaching, I have tried to bring in as diverse as possible, including international perspectives on topics, to facilitate open discussions, and to encourage individuality. This year, in my course "Sustainable Food Systems," I took up a feminist perspective for the first time. And who put me up to it? A Spanish master's student. That's no coincidence, is it? Together with her, I will now bring this perspective to master's students - and hopefully to other people - and I am already looking forward to the mutual inspiration.
So: thank you, Witzenhausen. Without you, I might still be annoyed that I'm working while others are eating ice cream.