Sustainability (2021-24)
About us
We lead and facilitate research seeking ways to ensure human wellbeing and equity in harmony with other species and within the Earth's limits. Taking a strong ecological perspective, we explore sustainability in a range of systems and across a range of scales in space and time, from the local to the global. We also work to ensure research is sustainable as a practice in the sense that it is non-exploitative of the human and non-human communities that it enrols.
Sustainability IRT Highlights
Here are some key highlights & reflections from our Sustainability IRT leads.
Karen Bell
As part of my role as Just Transition lead in the Sustainability IRT, I undertook the following activities:
- Supported (e.g. showing them around the campus and city) sustainability themed visitors to the University of Glasgow, such as Alfredo Carballo from the University of Havana.
- Made an internal application for the Leverhulme JT Centre with Mel Simms and Simon McGrath.
- Attended a number of IRT sustainability workshops, such as one on China's Carbon Inclusion System (1st Nov 2023)
- Organised a book launch ‘Equality and Diversity in Environmentalist’. Speakers included Roger Griffith MBE and Gnisha Bevan of Black Seeds; Olivia Sweeney of the Green and Black Ambassadors; and Zarina Ahmad, of the Women’s Environmental Network.
- Led a cross-university bid to establish a Just Transition Doctoral Scholarships Centre at University of Glasgow through Marie Skłodowska-Curie funding.
- Organised a workshop on a transformational approach to sustainability.
- Explored the possibility of setting up a Leverhulme Just Transition Centre at University of Glasgow with academics across the University.
- I also made a successful interdisciplinary (approx. £1 million) application to AHRC for a project on Romany Sustainability practices with a key person I met through these activities.
Jill Robbie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ruFmezGxMo
I am a Senior Lecturer in Law and a member of the Sustainability Interdisciplinary Leadership Team. I have been a member of the IRT for three years, and joined when I was a Lecturer. I mentioned in my application for the position that I was an Early Career Researcher and I wished to develop my leadership skills as well as enhance the interdisciplinary scope and reach of my expertise. The role has certainly allowed me to do exactly that! The team originally comprised Prof Jude Robinson, Prof Mia Perry and Dr John Shi, and regular contact with this diverse group of scholars to discuss and implement ways to enhance sustainability research across the College was really inspiring. Over the course of my term as IRT member, I have organised interdisciplinary research events, supported research grant applications as well as presented on the work of the IRT to external organisations. Being involved in supporting grant applications led by others built my confidence so that when a recent Land Use for Net Zero call was advertised by UKRI, I felt confident to lead a interdisciplinary team of researchers to submit a bid for this call. Submitting this bid was a rapid learning curve, but the support from the interdisciplinary team in the College Research Office was really exceptional in this context. When I reflect on the 3 years in the IRT, it has been a gradual progression in terms of building confidence in interdisciplinary working, recognising how hard that is, and understanding the support which is available for this type of work at Glasgow University. I am convinced that the transition to sustainability demands interdisciplinary research, so I would highly recommend this position to anyone wishing to build their skills in this way.
Cecilia Tortajada
As part of the IRT on Sustainability,
- I organised a learning event on aid to agriculture with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), the independent body responsible for scrutiny of UK aid.
- I co-organised an event with the IRT on Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision Making, and Scotland's International Development Alliance. The topic of the event was “Evidence for Change. Building partnerships between academia and third sector organizations working in the Global South”.
- I also organised a networking meeting with one of the largest publishers in the world, Taylor and Francis.
I appreciate the opportunity to be part of the Sustainability IRT. It was an extraordinary opportunity for me.
Anna Wilson
I joined the Sustainability IRT team at the start of 2023, just over 6 months after taking up a post in the School of Education. I wanted to support the development of interdisciplinary research that: (i) contributes to making our relationship with the world more equitable and ecologically sustainable; and (ii) extends and challenges understandings of what sustainability might mean.
I admit that I didn't do as much to support others as I might have liked: plans for a series of developmental workshops on doing interdisciplinary research on sustainability never reached fruition, and similarly for sessions that might have brought people together to draft position papers on pressing issues. But the events I did run, using creative approaches to explore topics such as waste, marine litter and carbon capture and storage from alternative and sometimes oblique angles, were both highly productive and fun. The exhibitions I put on in the ARC, the Mitchell library and (coming up in August) in the St Andrew's Building have also been a great way to showcase co-produced creative work coming from community- and College-based partners. Having the IRT team's support in this has been a real boon.
I also got to know some fantastic, supportive colleagues, especially in the College research support team. My involvement in the IRT led to different kinds of bid development with new collaborators - not always financially successful, but always intellectually productive. My own thinking has both clarified and evolved, and I think that shows in the monograph just published with my co-author John Smith, "Radical Ecology in the Face of the Anthropocene Extinction".
So although I'll continue to kick myself for not following through on all our good ideas, looking back I think it really has been as much as I could have hoped for.