I am broadly interested in working collaboratively to explore how ongoing transformations in our relationships with nature and each other, could be shaped in ways that make them more sustainable, equitable and meaningful. I draw inspiration, as well as theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches from political ecology, critical policy studies, environmental governance and the diverse literatures on collective imaginations. 

My research has spanned a number of empirical areas relevant to global sustainability over recent years, including: biodiversity conservation, climate change, geoengineering, the food/energy/water ‘nexus’, sustainable agriculture and urban digital infrastructures. Within these diverse areas, I take a critical approach to policy processes, examining questions of power, language and framing in the construction of expertise, unpicking dominant policy narratives and imaginaries, and examining the institutions through which the worlds of science and policy are mediated. I am particularly interested in analysing environmental discourse, and the kinds of political and ethical work that environmental discourses perform across different social worlds, as well as examining how these discourses might shape our ability to collectively imagine a different future.

I have been a Research Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit since 2012. I hold a degree in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge), a Masters in Conservation and Biodiversity (Exeter University) and a PhD from the Sustainability Research Unit (Leeds University). Prior to embarking on my PhD I worked for a number of years in the environmental NGO sector, (at People & Planet, the Centre for Alternative Technology, and Volunteering Matters).