Prahelika Deka

Profile

I am a Postgraduate student studying towards a PhD in Human Geography with a focus on the humanities and social dimensions of climate change. My PhD research aims to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the futures of climate. 

Prior to starting my PhD in October, 2023, I completed an MA in Social Research (Interdisciplinary) at the University of Leeds as part of my 1+3 studentship from the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP). For my MA dissertation, I explored how climate futures are imagined and produced through (visual) arts in activism in a case study of Extinction Rebellion.  

I am also a Priestley Climate Scholar at the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures wherein I engage in interdisciplinary climate reserach. 

Research interests

My PhD project explores climate futures of flood prone areas, focusing on Majuli Island in Assam, India. The study investigates how the people of Majuli imagine thier and their island’s futures amid its often single, dystopic portrayal of submergence. It addresses how affective ties between people and their environments influence their futures/future making in the face of climate change. Through an intersectional and decolonial lens, it investigates social and temporal imaginaries of placemaking by employing creative methodologies. By highlighting the importance of participant-led research, the study aims to reveal how lived experiences shape futures of climate, places and spaces. Understanding the everyday lives of those at the frontline of climate change by widening methodological approaches with them reflects the co-existence of individual acceptance and denial about the climate. It effectively contributes to the collective understanding of the global climate future-making.

Qualifications

• MA Social Research (Interdisciplinary), University of Leeds
• MA Geography, University of Delhi
• BA (Hons) Geography, University of Delhi

Research groups and institutes

• Social Justice, Cities, Citizenship