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Climate Crisis

Dr Olwenn Martin

I am curious about the connections between environmental change and well-being. Much of my research to date has been concerned with chemical pollution, specifically endocrine disruption (chemicals that can interfere with the functioning of hormonal signalling), mixture effects and most recently chemicals leaching from plastics. I am interested in the impacts of all environmental, occupational and social risk factors. Most current approaches to understanding the impacts of these various stressors has focused on studying them in isolation, adjusting for the impacts of the others if needs be. I found my transdisciplinary home in the emerging field of planetary health. I have long been drawn to systems thinking approaches and applying them to study the association between environment and health. To date, systems thinking research has limited to plastics; stakeholders, lifecycles, solutions.

Current projects include the European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), further collaboration with the Food Packaging Forum developing knowledgebases about chemicals leaching from food contact materials, several projects supporting the European Environment Agency's work towards the European Zero Pollution Ambition, and consultancy work for the World Health Organisation related to PFAS (aka forever chemicals). I am also involved in two Climate Crisis Grand Challenge awards.

Find out more about Olwenn's research on her UCL Profiles page.

Dr Lara Monticelli

Lara Monticelli is an economic sociologist dedicated to analysing contemporary capitalism, its crises, and the pursuit of more just and sustainable alternatives from an interdisciplinary perspective. She previously worked as an Assistant Professor and Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark. While at CBS, Lara led the EU-funded research project EcoLabSS, which focused on the (re)emergence of community-based, prefigurative social movements—such as sustainable communities, eco-villages, transition towns, and solidarity networks—as living laboratories exploring practices of resilience and resistance in the face of environmental, economic, and societal challenges. For her EcoLabSS project, Lara conducted extensive empirical research and site visits to ecovillages and intentional communities in Italy, Denmark, and India.

Currently, Lara is working on two journal articles. The first is based on her experience teaching about capitalism and its "alternatives" within the context of business education. Despite the widespread belief that the goal of business higher education today is to prepare future managers and entrepreneurs to address the world's "great challenges," it remains rare to engage in academic discussions about how capitalism can be defined, historicized, and critically evaluated within business school classrooms. In this context, the article raises a provocative question: What occurs when a course explicitly inspired by an influential sociological framework that critically examines contemporary capitalism and envisions more just and sustainable alternatives is taught at a top-ranked business school? What reactions, emotions, and reflections does this elicit among students, faculty, and the public?

The second article, still at a very preliminary stage, is a collective symposium wherein various authors reflect on and problematize the concept of "alternative organization" through decolonial, feminist, and ecological lenses.

Find out more about Lara's research on her UCL Profiles page.

Helen Omand

I am an art therapist currently doing PhD research on art therapy in a time of climate breakdown. I'm exploring how material art processes can be used therapeutically to make visible the emotional experiences of living in a world impacted by ecological crisis. 

How might our apocalyptical fears, fantasies and future imaginaries come into being in a tangible way, to be seen and related to by self and others?  What are our emotional landscapes in an era of climate breakdown?

My visual art practice runs alongside and investigates elements of my research process. As I begin my PhD I explore themes of care, as a therapist, and for the environment outside of the therapy room, through embodied processes of detailed looking, repetition and labour.  

Find out more about Helen's research on her UCL Profiles page.