ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship

During this 12-month Fellowship, I aim to disseminate my PhD and maximise its impact whilst developing professional and research skills consistent with my agenda of establishing an academic career as a scholar of climate change adaptation. This Fellowship aim will be pursued through the following objectives and activities. Establish academic publication track record: I will write and publish three articles in high-impact journals drawn from my PhD. The first paper on, ‘Interacting gendered institutions’, demonstrates how constraints to women’s climate response interweave with institutions. It contributes knowledge about the complex nature of women’s adaptation constraints and implications for climate response. This paper will be published with the Journal of African Affairs. The second paper on, ‘Negotiating intra-household gender relations’, demystifies the universalisation of women as victims of climate change and shows the significance of women’s agency in climate adaptation. I aim to publish this article with Geoforum journal. The third paper, ‘Feminist Political Ecology (FPE)’, examines FPE’s strengths and gaps in guiding critical institutional analysis. It suggests effective ways of analysing institutions using FPE perspectives. My aim is to publish this paper with the Journal of Feminist Geography. Build networks: To network with academics, I will present two papers drawn from my PhD at two conferences, Development Studies Association (DSA) and Political Ecology Network (POLLEN). Membership in DSA will strengthen my network even after the Fellowship. My research will also be presented at three research meetings, International Development Department (IDD) seminar, Environment and Sustainable Livelihoods (ESL) and Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR). The conferences and research groups bring together diverse climate change scholars whom I will interact with, gain constructive feedback and establish potential collaboration opportunities for my ESRC New Investigator grant application and future research. With non-academic audience, I will hold stakeholder workshops with farmers, clan leaders, selected policymakers and practitioners working on climate adaptation and agriculture in Uganda. This will provide space for interacting with stakeholders to strengthen and expand my network, providing a firm foundation for future collaboration. Expand non-academic impact: This will be achieved through two strategies, stakeholder workshops and policy briefs. Workshops will provide space for engaging with climate adaptation policymakers, practitioners and farmers through sharing my research and generating insights for translating it to actionable points to inform adaptation policy and practice. Two policy briefs, recommending strategies for addressing gender gaps in climate adaptation and how institutions can synergistically enhance gender equity in adaptation decision-making will be co-authored with two Community Based Organisations. To further facilitate engagement, the policy briefs will be shared with Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries, Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and ActionAid. These agencies will use the briefs to inform practice and integrate the recommendations into climate change policy development processes. The briefs will be published on my website, www.africaclimatehub.com, to engage with a wider audience. Develop research skills: I will undertake training on Social Network Analysis (SNA) using R to further develop skills of analysing institutional interplay and its linkage to climate adaptation, farmers network and gender power dynamics in climate response. The training will also enhance my ability to integrate quantitative research methods in my future research, improving my capacity to write high-quality application for ESRC New Investigator grant about evaluating the effectiveness of forest conservation in moderating climate risks, after the Fellowship.