About me

I’m a Lecturer in Conservation Social Science in the School of Anthropology and Conservation, and a member of Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Kent.

I am an environmental social scientist with research interests in socio-economic and institutional aspects of biodiversity conservation, natural resource management and utilisation, customary land and tree tenure systems, and gender, poverty and rural livelihoods. The focus of my work is primarily on the poverty-environment nexus, with current research extending to the issues of environmental justice, particularly in relation to conservation, forest governance and climate change mitigation policies.

I received my PhD in Environment and Politics, a joint degree from Environment and Politics Departments, at the University of York in 2010, with field research in Northern Ghana studying the political ecology of land and tree tenure regimes in agroforestry parklands.

Prior to joining Kent, I was a Research Associate in the Department of Geography at King’s College London (2019-2021). I’ve also held postdoctoral positions at ESPA Directorate (2017-2018); Bangor (2013-2017); SLU in Umeå (2011-2013); and York (2010-2011).

I am also affiliated with ForestAction Nepal as a Research Fellow.