Patricia Van Schuylenbergh holds a master in History (1988), a Master of Arts (Development) (1989) and a PhD in History (2006) from the UCLouvain (Belgium) and is currently a senior researcher at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (AfricaMuseum, Tervuren). She headed the History and Politics scientific service at this institution between 2014 and 2022. She was visiting lecturer (History of sub-Saharan Africa; Contacts and exchanges, Modern Age) at UCLouvain between 2010 and 2016 and co-president of CEHEC (Centre d'étude d'histoire de l'Europe contemporaine/Centre for the Study of Contemporary European History ).

She is co-director of the 'Outre-Mers' collection published by PIE - Peter Lang international editor.

Her areas of research and publications focus on the history of Central Africa (especially DRC, but also Rwanda and Burundi, 19th and 21st centuries) and more specifically: the environment and nature conservation, the human (colonial) exploitation of natural resources (wild fauna, forest, agriculture and fisheries), colonial sciences and naturalist collections; colonial archives; visual and audiovisual sources and collections; the historiography and pedagogy of colonial history.

She has also been involved in a number of exhibition projects in Belgium and abroad, as well as national and international projects to enhance colonial archives and to digitise audiovisual collections held at the AfricaMuseum.

Her expertise is notably complemented by training in Environmental Education (Education Sciences, UQAM, Quebec) and Ethology; she is also interested in Ecopoetics.