Becky Court

Profile

I am a PhD student based in the Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, at the University of Leeds. By training, I am a Zoologist and Conservation Biologist with experience encapsulating laboratory molecular work, data collection in the field, and desk-based research methods. Through time, my specific interests have evolved from general zoological studies, conservation biology, conservation policy, and through to questions of where, how, and why the field of conservation is changing due to technology.

Research interests

My research concerns new technologies used in conservation (such as eDNA, acoustic sensors, biotelemetry, radar, etc.) and asks what they change and mean for conservation practice and policy. For my project, I have necessarily adopted an interdisciplinary approach to incorporate political and social conservation science, technology studies, and the history and philosophy of technology. With taking the position of technology as a mediator and an agent of change, I am particularly interested in exploring what tech means for our day-to-day practices, the questions that we’re asking, the data that gets collected and used, wider policy processes and systems and, ultimately, the future direction of conservation at large.

Broadly, my interests include:

• Conservation technology
• Political ecology/conservation
• Philosophy of Biology
• Philosophy of Technology
• History of Technology
• Conservation social science

Qualifications

• BSc Zoology, University of Liverpool
• MRes Biodiversity and Conservation, University of Leeds

Research groups and institutes

• Ecology and Global Change
• Sustainability Research Institute