ABOUT

I am a Scotland-based social researcher and evaluator with a focus on social and ecological justice. 

I'm motivated by making research more accessible, shared, and applied to real-world change, whilst helping organisations engage with academic research, evidence, and the varied knowledges of their communities. 

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‌I have a mixed professional background in non-governmental organisations and academia, with a focus throughout on socio-environmental damage and governance. My PhD is in Global Political Ecology, and my research since has focused on the intersections between social, economic, and environmental justice by considering the root causes of contemporary crisis as rooted in systems of oppression, mass consumerism, and alienation. Or more specifically: how we measure things, what and how we value, whose knowledge makes the cut, sits at the heart of what constitutes a crisis, and what its solutions might look like. That can tie us into endlessly recreating the conditions of crisis – but it can also help us in acknowledging knowledge injustices, and working towards different ways of knowing, valuing, and understanding socio-natural systems. I’ve shared my work with diverse audiences from parliamentary committees to academic journals to activist networks, and in multiple countries including China, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and the rest of the UK. 

I've designed undergraduate, postgraduate, and short summer school programmes in social sciences, and supervised research students. I’ve also worked with organisations to help broaden and strengthen their approach to evidence and social research as part of stakeholder engagement. I've worked at mainstream and alternative higher education institutes, including the University of Edinburgh, Centre for Alternative Technology, the University of the West of the Scotland, University of Leicester, De Montfort University (Leicester), and Liaoning University (Shenyang, China).  

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I believe there’s an important role for research in contributing to social change and socio-ecological justice. If you would like help engaging with the vast academic literatures on this in relation to your community, stakeholder group, or topic, or if you’d like me to design and carry out some bespoke research for your project, we can arrange an initial consultation: consult@leatham.scot.