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Dr Rebecca St. Clair

  • Position: Lecturer in Sustainable Food Systems
  • Areas of expertise: Sustainable food systems; geographies of food; urban agriculture; resilience; food justice; Right to grow
  • Email: R.StClair@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 10.118 Earth and Environment
  • Website: Twitter | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | ORCID

Profile

I am a Lecturer in Sustainable Food Systems in the Sustainable Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment. I consider myself an interdisciplinary researcher and hold a BSc (Hons) in Physiology from the University of Liverpool and an MSc in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology from Imperial College, London. I completed her PhD research in the Geography Department of the University of Salford, where I worked with a community food project, using qualitative research techniques to investigate the impacts of community growing schemes. My PhD drew on critical geography and food justice literature to explore the role of top-down urban agriculture projects in an area of high deprivation during a period of austerity in the UK. 

After completing my PhD, I worked at Manchester Metropolitan University as a Research Associate in Sustainable Food Systems for the FoodChains 4EU Interreg project, which aimed to support the development of regional policies to build sustainable food chains. I was also a Research Associate in Circular Economy at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester, where I worked on projects related to seafood, circular economy, food systems resilience and plastic waste management.

I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG), the Secretary for the RGS Food Geographies Research Group and a Fellow of AdvanceHE (FHEA). 

Research interests

My research focuses on the broad area of sustainable food and I have research experience in urban agriculture, circular economy, the development of local/regional food policy, and food systems resilience.

I am currently working on research projects that explore local foodscapes and the Right to Grow.

Qualifications

  • PhD Department of Geography, University of Salford
  • MSc History of Science, Medicine and Technology, Imperial College London
  • BSc (Hons) Physiology, University of Liverpool

Professional memberships

  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
  • Advance HE Fellow (FHEA)

Student education

I welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study.

Research groups and institutes

  • Sustainability Research Institute