This study explores the Lamlash Bay Not Take Zone (NTZ), a marine restoration project on the Isle of Arran (Scotland), and how it revitalised relations between people and the marine ecosystem, creating transformative alternatives in response to exploitation of industrial fishing. Through theories of Feminist Political Ecology and labour environmentalism, I examine whether the NTZ represents a transformative alternative in response to extractivism, how communities reclaimed seas as commons through care practices, allowing marine life to regenerate, preserving nature and local economy of Scottish fishing communities ensuring a just transition within planetary boundaries and respecting wellbeing of humans and more-than-humans.
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My project will explore how a local woodland might become sacred to a community through the
combination of sacred geographies and posthumanist theory. Beginning from the complex starting point
of a landscape which is already profaned through high levels of pollution and littering, the research will
instigate and examine the impact of deepening, ritualised encounters between residents and place to
explore what it might take for place to be resacralised in a contemporary imaginary. It will ask: what
would it take to (re)gain a sense of sacred place within the context of a polluted world? Is it even
possible?
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My project aims to explore how factors: politics and geography, biological factors and government actions, affect bodily autonomy in East Africa, particularly in Ethiopia and Kenya. In doing so, it examines the influence of issues such as political in/stability, and international aid as well as biological determinism (the idea that genetics shape behaviour and social outcome) on advocacy efforts of NGOs and activists. I will investigate how state violence and discriminatory laws impact these groups’ rights.
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1. Navigating sovereignty concerns and geopolitical tensions in the ratification of the Malabo Protocol
2. The Impact of Incitement by Public Officials in the Commission of Genocide: the Case of Ethnic Amharas in the Oromia Region
3. Abiy’s legitimacy crisis and the Northern armed conflict: re-establish the base or coerce legitimacy?
4. Political Dynamics and Intelligence in Ethiopia: A 27-Year Overview (1991-2018)
My research focuses on disaster narratives, specifically around volcanic activity. Through lived experience and interaction with volcanism, communities develop strong cultural ties to the landscape and a heterogeneous local disaster knowledge, which may be shared in narrative or story form. An understanding of these knowledges is crucial to both effective volcanic risk management and building of relationships between disaster managers and communities. By completing a systematic review of existing literature around disaster storytelling and ethnographic research within a specific community, I hope to build upon existing academic work around local disaster knowledges and contribute to a decolonisation of disaster research.
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My PhD project will investigate how feminist humanitarian networks challenge inequalities in the aftermath of disasters, and how their everyday practices can foster long-term, transformative change. The research seeks to inform post-disaster frameworks, policies and strategies by embedding gender-sensitive approaches into disaster recovery. Ultimately, I aim to bridge theory and practice by developing gender-sensitive frameworks for disaster management that can deliver tangible, equitable impacts.
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In Western literary geography, Oceania has often been exoticised (Kothari & Palis, 2024) with its stories extracted by white male geographers/explorers via violent encounters with Indigenous populations. These gendered colonial portrayals silence numerous Oceanian voices, particularly women’s (Kabutaulaka, 2015). While post-/de-colonial scholars have challenged this silence, women’s voices have remained peripheral. With this project, I aim to disrupt this and counter the tendency to undervalue orature, by foregrounding Indigenous women’s stories in transmedial forms (beyond written formats). Methodologically, I focus on decentralising the researcher from storying processes by centring Indigenous story-holders (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012). I intend to both make Indigenous stories visible, and co-create stories that focus on island women’s lived experiences.
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Crossways Journal, Guelph (CA): https://www.fabula.org/actualites/crossways-journal-issue 11_78188.php
Tropos, UCL (UK): https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1502388/1/Tropos2016-Collings.pdf
Scene, Nottingham (UK https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/scene.4.2.99_1
My research explores connections between culture and intersectional inclusion within the UK Drum & Bass (DnB). Following nearly a decade in music production, I am stepping back from the production networks to conduct a digital ethnography to examine how gendered and racial identities are promoted or excluded within contemporary DnB digital economies of peer production and influencer marketing. I am motivated by the potential for creating more equitable markets for my fellow producers and DJs through this research, with my research also partnering with several music labels to inform their diversity and inclusion strategies.
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I am a human geographer interested in agrarian change and the production of commodities, quality and value. My PhD research asks how coffee farmers in Vietnam work with specific value chains and agricultural science to improve their livelihoods by increasing the quality and value of their coffee. This project is driven by the need for policymakers, industry and consumers to build richer understandings of rural development and changing value chains from the perspectives of producers. Theoretically, this research is grounded in critical livelihood studies, commodity studies and science and technology studies.
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Over 95% of UK local authorities have declared climate emergencies and many have adopted local climate plans to establish targets and actions for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change. However, these plans typically lack the legal powers and accountability mechanisms of national policy frameworks, such as climate change acts, to force and incentivise actions by local actors. This research critically interrogates how local climate plans achieve impact in these circumstances by investigating the mechanisms and processes through which they seek to build stakeholder support and influence the behaviour of local actors in pursuit of net zero.
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I am intending to investigate the value of playful learning for reducing climate anxiety in young people. I am particularly focused on cryosphere geography, and have based my project around Ice Flows, developed by Dr Anne Le Brocq, University of Exeter. I want to understand if playful learning can help develop the skills needed for proactively approaching climate change problems, especially through building climate resilience. I am also aware that playful learning needs to complement current UK secondary education, which prioritises written communication through examination. This balance will be key to my research.