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Staff Profile

Dr Catherine Walker

NUAcT Fellow: Cities and Place

  • Address: Room 3.127 Henry Daysh Building
    School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

I joined Newcastle University in February 2023 as a NUAcT Fellow in Cities and Place, specialising in research around young people, climate justice and education. I am interested in how climate change can exacerbate intersecting social inequalities for young people and their families, and the opportunities young people have to respond to this in families, schools and communities.


Building on these interests, the aim of my NUAcT Fellowship is to explore the potential for climate justice - as both an agenda for action and a way of understanding inequalities - to galvanise youth and intergenerational responses to climate change as a past, present and future concern.


I was recently interviewed about my research interests for the NUAcT Early Career Researcher Stories podcast series. You can listen to this 15 minute interview, as well as other fascinating ECR stories at Podcasts - NUAcT (NU Academic Track Fellowships) - Newcastle University (ncl.ac.uk)


Since completing my PhD in 2016 I have worked and published in Human Geography primarily, particularly Geographies of Children, Youth and Families, Social Geographies and Environmental Geographies (see 'research' for details). However, my PhD is in Sociology and my research extends into and is informed by Environmental Politics, Sociology of Childhood and Generation, and Critical Environmental Education.


Qualifications

  • PhD Sociology - UCL Institute of Education, 2016. Thesis title: 'Environment and children's everyday lives in India and England: Experiences, understandings and practices' (supervised by Professor Ann Phoenix, UCL, and Professor Janet Boddy, University of Sussex)
  • MSc Globalisation and Latin American Development, Institute for the Study of the Americas, UCL, 2010.
  • BA Hispanic Studies, University of Nottingham, 2007.


Memberships and responsibilities

  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers).
  • RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group (GCYFRG) Mentoring Officer.
  • Member of the Political Studies Association.
  • Former Secretary (2017-2021) of the RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group.







Research

I have led or collaborated on research in the UK, Australia, Brazil and India that coheres around three areas relating to children, young people and environment:



These publications have been generated from my work on the following research projects:



Upon completion of the YPAC project, I published a set of creative resources that had been co-created with others involved in the project (including other adult researchers, environmental educators and young people who took part and were trained as young researchers). These resources are available to view and download here.


I am currently working on academic publications from the YPAC project.

Teaching

At this stage in my research fellowship, I am not currently engaged in teaching on any taught modules.


I welcome enquiries from prospective doctoral students interested in the following topics:

  • global and/or intergenerational perspectives on children and young people's experiences of and responses to environmental challenges
  • theorising climate justice and inclusive sustainability
  • critical environmental education
  • creative methods of (co)-researching with children and young people.


Publications