Joseph Wilde-Ramsing ’01 Founding member of UNC Asheville’s Spanish theater group and political science major, 2001 alumnus Joseph Wilde-Ramsing began his career in human rights during his time at UNC Asheville. “I would definitely say that my career development began at UNCA. For my undergraduate thesis, I conducted empirical research in Quito, Ecuador, examining political graffiti as an alternative form of political participation in a developing democracy,” says Wilde-Ramsing.
ECUADOR SPAIN NETHERLANDS ARGENTINA LAOS PERU MALI UGANDA CAMBODIA COSTA RICA TANZANIA THAILAND NEW ORLEANS, L.A. NAMIBIA
After graduating from UNCA, he interned at the U.S. embassy in Madrid during the months following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Once the internship ended, he spent a year traveling and working on organic farms in different parts of Spain. WildeRamsing returned to the United States to complete a master’s degree in political science from Tulane University. In 2004, Wilde-Ramsing followed his wife, UNCA alumna Birka Wicke, to the Netherlands, finding work with an Amsterdam-based, nonprofit, non-governmental research institute called the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) that investigates multinational corporations and the impact of their activities on people and the environment. While continuing his work at SOMO, in 2008 he began conducting doctoral research through the Centre for Studies in Technology and Sustainable Development at the University of Twente earning his Ph.D. in 2013 with a dissertation on sustainable development and corporate accountability in the global energy sector, based on fieldwork in Argentina, Peru, Mali, Uganda, Cambodia, and Laos.
“I get to travel around the world doing research and speaking to communities and individuals whose human rights have been violated by companies, then assist those communities in raising their voice to claim and defend their rights.”
“I have a passion for justice, but also for people and for cultures and cuisines of the world. My work at SOMO allows me to combine these passions perfectly,” he says. “I get to travel around the world doing research and speaking to communities and individuals whose human rights have been violated by companies, then assist those communities in raising their voice to claim and defend their rights.” 4
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