Biography
Brenda obtained her undergrad degree from UBC (Vancouver) where she did a double major in Geography and Political Science. Having had the chance to live in multicultural and international environments, she participated in a diversity of activities and roles such as summer camp counselor for teenage girls affected by HIV/AIDs, designing a tactile map for blind and visually impaired members of the community, teaching Spanish and mathematics to female inmates in the USA and English to youngsters in under-resourced schools in India. She moved to the Netherlands to pursue a Master’s in Human Geography and Planning at Utrecht University with the HSP scholarship. As part of this programme, for half a year she lived in Wuhan, China to conduct empirical research. In 2008 she was awarded a Toptalent grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to pursue a PhD at Utrecht University researching socio-spatial changes in urban China.