Birgit Phillips is a professor of education, keynote speaker, systemic coach, and self-proclaimed “education activist”, advocating knowledge democracy and education for sustainable development in higher education. Her expertise lies in the areas of digital learning environments, qualitative and participatory research, higher education didactics and cross-cultural competence. Her research cuts across the humanities and social sciences and is firmly anchored in critical approaches to the study of education. She draws inspiration from transformative, emancipatory, and participatory education paradigms.
Dr. Birgit works at the University of Graz and serves as the Scientific Director of the Higher Education Didactics Program at the FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences as well as the Academic Advisor to the Council of Educational Administration and Education in Kerala, India. In June 2022, she became a STAR-certified research scholar and is keen on connecting transnationally networked leaders who care for social and environmental justice.
For her work, Dr. Birgit has received numerous grants, as well as national and international awards. For her research on transformative travel and identity negotiation, she received the Patricia Cranton Research Award at the Transformative Learning Conference at Columbia University in 2018. She was also awarded the Erudite Scholar of the Year 2020 by the Council for Educational Administration and Management (CEAM) in India, and most recently, she received the Arqus Teaching Excellence Award from the Arqus European University Alliance for her work on community-engaged education.
