Green Conference: Brigitte Luis Guillermo Baptiste - Queering ecology in TransColombia
Channel: Medical Museion
Date: 06/02/2019

Abstract

Brigitte was born in 1963 in Bogotá, Colombia, and born again in 1998, after 35 years of living as Luis Guillermo. By then she was already a biologist and scholar working on biodiversity management by local communities in her country, and held a MA in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida. Married to Adriana, she lives as a couple with two girls aged 16 and 14, who do not make a big deal of the gender trouble of their parents. As a professor in landscape ecology at the Bogotá Jesuits University, Brigitte has contributed for many years to the creation of its faculty for environmental and rural studies, and brought voice to the idea of both biological and cultural diversity to her classes in architecture, design and science. Despite her failure to complete a PhD in environmental economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in 2009 she was appointed general director of the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, the national facility for biodiversity research in Colombia, supposedly the country with the richest biodiversity in the world. As such, she has been developing environmental policies for Colombia’s post-conflict areas, raising awareness that cultural diversity is part of nature’s diversity. The author of 15 books, a popular TV series, and regular newspaper columns on fashion, economics and ecological thought, as well as a social media activist, Baptiste is a much-respected figure throughout Latin America whose innovative research and alternative narratives have eroded prejudice, built bridges and generated social change. At the same time a scientist, an advocate of gender diversity and an inspiring public intellectual, she was awarded the Prince Claus Fund for culture and development prize in 2017. www.humboldt.org.co