Students at the heart of new strategy for Centre for Environment and Society

Students will be supported to improve the local environment, promote sustainable solutions and undertake interdisciplinary research as part of a new strategy being launched by the Centre for Environment and Society at the University of Essex.

The Centre is looking to promote environmental and sustainable issues across research and education and has set out three core objectives as part of its strategy through to 2026.

These objectives are to champion interdisciplinary research and education on environmental issues across our campuses, to support postgraduate research students with an interdisciplinary research focus, and to enhance the local environment and catalyse students to act as ‘change agents’ for sustainability.

The Centre is a collaboration across Essex’s three faculties and is being led by Professor Tom Cameron (Director and Professor of Applied Ecology in the School of Life Sciences), Dr Katy Wheeler (Deputy Director and Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Consumption) and Dr Elisif Wasmuth (Deputy Director and Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy).

Tom said: “We are very excited about the relaunch and want to hear from academics interested in the environment, about how we can help them develop new research and education partnerships across our campuses and break down disciplinary boundaries.

“In breaking down these boundaries we can rise to the challenges society faces, not least the climate and biodiversity loss crises.” Katy said:

“We want CES to become a hub for postgraduate researchers to come together and share their innovative work aimed at addressing sustainability and environmental challenges. “We will be opening opportunities for postgraduate researchers to play a leading role in promoting interdisciplinary ways of working.”

In addition the leadership team have appointed a core CES advisory board from across all Schools and Departments.

You can find out more about the advisory board on the CES website where you can also sign up to a CES mailing list.

Centre's main focus

The core goal for CES is to promote and generate new research at Essex on environmental issues, including how society interacts with, affects and benefits from the environment around us.

The Centre will be holding horizon scanning events in 2024 to identify future research areas and potential funding calls. It also be co-hosting a National Bird Aware Mitigation Meeting on Tuesday 19 March, which will feature contributions from Centre academics.

This event will look at the many benefits people gain from accessing nature and also the many costs this can have to nature and its recovery.

These are two areas where Essex is already showing research leadership – the physical and mental health benefits of green exercise, and the ecological costs of human-wildlife interaction.

New opportunities for MSD and PhD students

The Centre’s objective to champion postgraduate research students working on interdisciplinary topics relevant to both the environment and society has been strengthened through a successful funding bid which has led to the establishment of the Sustainable Transitions – Leverhulme Doctoral Training Programme.

This initiative led by Dr Stephen Turner in Essex Law School, is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and supported by CES and its many partners.

From 2024 the programme will fund 21 interdisciplinary studentships over a period of eight years.

The Centre is seeking to identify postgraduate MSD or PhD researchers at Essex who consider their work to have an environmental focus, or who are supervised by academics from different disciplines.

Researchers should look out for the call for this information or can send an email now to Liz Lee-Reynolds in the School of Life Sciences at: eeleer@essex.ac.uk, stating your name, School of registration, supervisors at Essex and a very brief 100 word summary of your research.