Politics, International Relations & Philosophy

I received an Honours BA and a Master’s of Urban and Regional Planning from Queen’s University, Kingston (Canada) and a PhD in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto. As a PhD candidate I taught undergraduate modules in environmental politics and sociology at both York University and Trent University. I was also an executive member of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada, an editorial board member of Women and Environments International, and an honorary research associate in the Institute for Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. 

After spending a semester teaching on the Environmental Studies programme at the University of Wisconsin (USA), in 2002 I moved to the Institute for Environment, Philosophy and Public Policy at Lancaster University on a two-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.  In 2005 I became a Research Associate in the Institute for Health Research at Lancaster University and in 2006 co-founded Public Space a not-for-profit company specialising in research communication and public engagement. 

I joined Keele University in 2006 as Lecturer in Environmental Politics in SPIRE.  I am a member of the Research Centre for the Study of Politics, International Relations and Environment in the Research Institute for Social Sciences.

• Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
• Awarded a Keele University Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (2009)

My areas of research are:

• Feminist and environmental political theory 
• Citizenship 
• Discourses of sustainability
• Neoliberalism and governmentality
• Qualitative and participatory methods

Recent research grants

I am co-investigator on an interdisciplinary team working on a major, 3-year RCUK-funded project (starting in May 2011) titled 'Reducing Energy Consumption through Community Knowledge Networks'.  The team members are: Prof Andrew Dobson, Prof Mark Ormerod, Dr Phil Catney, Dr Zoe Robinson, Dr Sarah Hall, Dr Sarah Hards and Simon Ross (Marches Energy Agency).
See http://www.esci.keele.ac.uk/recckn/

In 2008-09 I conducted a pilot study titled The New (Good) British Citizen: Political Implications of the UK Citizenship Test and Ceremony, which was funded by The British Academy.  Co-researchers were Prof Andrew Dobson and Gavin Bailey.During the research project I kept a blog called ‘My journey to British citizenship'.

I teach on the following undergraduate modules:

• Introduction to Environment and Sustainability (ESC 10044)
• Environmental Politics and Policy (PIR 20067)
• Research Skills in Environment and Sustainability (ESC 20033)
• Case Study in Environment and Sustainability (PIR 30097)
• Gender, Justice and Environment (PIR 30098)

I am involved in teaching on the following postgraduate modules:

• Dimensions of Environmental Politics (PIR 40017)
• Research Training in Politics and IR (PIR 40003)
• Power, Knowledge and the World (PIR 40110)

Editorial projects

• Global Perspectives on Environmentalism, Timothy J. Doyle and Sherilyn MacGregor (Eds). A two-volume set to be published in 2012 by Praeger
• Critical Social Policy Special Issue on Environmental Policy volume 31, number 20, May 2011; coordinating editor with Rachel Aldred and Michael Cahill. 

Invited lectures and conference presentations

• 'Vulnerable victims or resilient subjects? Dismantling the discursive traps of climate policy'.  International conference on Gender and Climate Change,  Monash University in Prato, Italy,  September 2011.
• Keynote address 'Green politics in the age of stupid' at the ‘Cosmopolis/ Cosmopolitics: Humanities and Citizenship after Neo-Liberalism‘ Conference, Institute for the Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver May 5-7, 2010.
• Invited speaker, 5^th International Conference on Climate Change in the Indian Ocean Region: Geopolitics, Energy and Security. Paper title: ‘Researching gender and climate change: from impacts to discourses’. Osmania University, Hyderabad, November 16-18 2009.
• Keynote address at the ‘Mothering and the Environment: The Natural, The Social, and the Built’ Conference, Association for Research on Mothering, York University, Toronto, October 22, 2009.
•  ‘Environmental Citizenship: Key Themes and Debates’. Invited lecture, Oxford Environmental Law Association, Oxford University, March 2008.
• ‘Creating the New (Good) British Citizen’.  Paper presented at Citizenship Theory Symposium, organised by the Political Studies Association Specialist Group on Democracy and Citizenship. University of Southampton, January 2008.
•  ‘Environmental Citizenship: Power, Promise, Problems’. Invited presentation given at the Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, January 2005.