Paula Novo
UK (Spanish)

My name is Paula Novo and I’m originally from Galicia, Spain, but for the past eight years, I have been based in the UK. I have an interdisciplinary background in agriculture, development studies and economics and policy. Since obtaining my PhD in 2013 on policy processes and collective action in water reforms, I have worked first as Researcher at the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, and then as Lecturer and Deputy Programme Director for the MSc in Ecological Economics at Scotland’s Rural College and the University of Edinburgh. Recently I’ve joined the Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds as Lecturer in Ecological Economics. My research aims to understand human-nature relationships and environmental governance processes with the aim of supporting transitions towards sustainability. My main research lines revolve around environmental values and perceptions, how these link to different governance approaches and how people respond to environmental changes.

I am running for the ISEE board as I see it as an opportunity to contribute and give back to the ecological economics community. I would like the ISEE to be a space not only for academic exchange and learning but also for mutual support and caring. In the past ISEE and Degrowth conferences I’ve participated in different sessions focusing on academic livelihoods and co-hosted some others on the use of creative writing and drama for enabling engagement and grappling with different issues, including climate change, biodiversity loss, rise of extremism, and health epidemics. I found that very powerful, and I wished that these types of regenerative spaces were more present in our academic lives. I also have a personal and academic interest in arts-based research to engage in transformative action. Artistic expression engages emotions and can be used to nurture an embedded experience and accessing fields and topics traditionally difficult to research, such as conflict and power dynamics. Through the ISEE board I hope I can help to bring these types of approaches into our practice and facilitate spaces for people to learn and experience them.

Affiliation

Dr Paula Novo
Sustainability Research Institute
Faculty of Environment
School of Earth and Environment
University of Leeds