PhD opportunity with the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society at Imperial College London
Title: Exploring environmental justice in fire governance through arts-based approaches
Project Outline
Wildfires are one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time, causing devastating impacts in many parts of the world, including fire-prone regions such as California, Australia and the Mediterranean, but also increasingly in other regions such as Siberia and Alaska. The simplistic ‘bad fire’ narrative tends to obscure their deep entanglements with human culture, livelihoods and human-(non-human) nature interactions. In many landscapes, fire regimes and practices have been long shaped by colonial and neocolonial forces, where state-led fire suppression policies have contributed to the erasure of Indigenous and traditional knowledge, governance systems and fire practices; practices which, among other purposes, have historically played a crucial role in managing landscapes and reducing fuel loads. These exclusions are not incidental but reflect broader struggles over land, authority, and environmental governance. As climate change intensifies fire risks, wildfire management has become a key site of political and ecological contestation, raising urgent questions about environmental justice: Whose knowledge systems and governance practices are recognised or erased? And how can fire management strategies be reimagined to centre equity, sustainability, and decolonial perspectives?
This PhD project, funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, will sit within the Centre’s new research team titled Just Fire: identifying equitable fire governance, livelihoods and futures. The aim of this team is to promote ecologically sound and socially just approaches to fire management and governance that combine scientific and traditional knowledge systems and support the livelihoods and rights of Indigenous and local communities. You will engage with Just Fire team members throughout your project, enriching your understanding of fire justice in different contexts and contributing to the team’s aims and objectives. The Centre’s research to date related to this theme has included work in Guyana, Brazil, India, Kenya, Ghana, Mozambique and Scotland. The project will also connect to the Centre’s initiative, ‘Wildfires at the Art-Science Interface’, which amongst other topics has interacted with issues of justice, colonialism and Indigenous perspectives.
Taking an arts-based approach, the project will therefore critically explore fire justice through the lens of colonialism, Indigenous and local governance and practices, and environmental rights. It will explore the complex relationships between fire, culture, livelihoods and biodiversity, challenging dominant fire management paradigms that marginalise traditional knowledge systems. While the project may take a transdisciplinary approach, for example drawing upon environmental social sciences, political ecology, and decolonial studies, arts- based approaches will be the primary methodology. The successful candidate will have the freedom to shape the project’s direction, including the selection of case study location(s), within these broader themes.
The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to engage with the project FIRECULT, which aims to understand the links between climate change driven disruption in fire regimes and tangible or intangible cultural heritage and inform resilient heritage management. FIRECULT, led by Imperial College London (Dr Yiannis Kountouris) from 2024-2026, will employ artists to reflect on the past and imagining the future of the wildfire-heritage relationship under climate change. Local analyses will take place in four case study sites of heritage-rich landscapes in Ireland, Kenya, Turkey, and Italy.
Studentship Overview
The studentship will be supervised by Dr Adriana Ford, Department of Life Sciences, at Imperial College London and Dr Elia Apostolopoulou in the Centre for Environmental Policy.
The student will be based within the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP) based at Imperial’s South Kensington campus. CEP focuses on the interface between science and policy in key environmental subjects through the interdisciplinary study of science, technology and innovation.
The student will be funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society (https://centreforwildfires.org/). The Centre comprises social and natural scientists from Imperial College, King’s College London, Royal Holloway and University of Reading, working together to create a new, integrative science of wildfire. The student will therefore join a vibrant interdisciplinary research community with a common vision of producing evidence-based understanding of the human-fire nexus that can help inform policy and practice.
How to apply
The applicant will have a minimum 2.1 (or equivalent) undergraduate degree in arts or an allied field. They will either have, or be working towards, a Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field, awarded with (or predicted) a distinction (or equivalent). Experience of working in multidisciplinary teams and collaborating with scientists, stakeholders and communities is desirable. Experience with academic writing and/or publishing will also be highly valued, as would evidence of exhibiting arts-based outputs and/or curating exhibitions.
Applicants should submit:
i) A CV (max 2 A4 sides), including details of two academic references;
ii) A cover letter outlining and demonstrating how their qualifications, experience, and interests make them suitable to pursue the research outlined above, including possible ideas for how they might focus the work on particular questions;
iii) Examples of arts-based outputs
iv) Writing sample
These should submitted via our online application process via How to apply | Faculty of Natural Sciences | Imperial College London / My Imperial Portal by Monday 3rd March, choosing Environmental Research and selecting Dr Elia Apostolopoulou as supervisor. Interviews will take place online in April 2025 with an expected September 2025 start. Please state your start date availability within your application.
For further information on the project, please contact Dr Adriana Ford, a.ford@imperial.ac.uk and Dr Elia Apostolopoulou: e.apostolopoulou@imperial.ac.uk.
Funding info
The studentship will be funded at UKRI stipend rates paid for four years (for 2024/2025 this is £21,237 per annum, including London allowance) paid for four years. The studentship will also cover Home Fees (UKRI rate) or International Fees for four years. There will be support funding for fieldwork and conference attendance.
