Dr. Valeria Tolis

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds in September 2022 as Teaching Fellow in environmental policy and governance, then I became Lecturer in September 2023. Before joining the University of Leeds I worked as a Lecturer in Comparative politics and then Lecturer in Politics at Cardiff University, where I have also completed my PhD.

I have a multidisciplinary background that includes environmental politics and governance, linguistics and language-based theoretical and methodological approaches, ethnographical approaches, and EU politics and governance. I also have years of experience in the translation and localisation industry, and in teaching Italian as a foreign language.

Responsibilities

• Module Leader for SOEE5474 Environmental politics, policy and governance
• Programme leader for BSc Sustainability and Environmental Management (SEM)
• Research Cluster Co-lead of Social Political Dimension of Sustainability (SPDS)

Research interests

I am broadly interested in critical, theoretical and methodological approaches to knowledge production, policy formulation and implementation in sustainability matters. These include how the various discourses and practices of environmental governance are socio-politically produced and contested to produce particular and contingent outcomes; the mechanisms that govern status quo and change in the production of environmental knowledge and in the formulation of policies, notably counter-hegemonic ideas and practices as well as practices of subversion and resistance; theories of subjectivity and agency.

Qualifications

• PhD. in International Relations (Global environmental politics), Cardiff University
• Msc in International Relations, Cardiff University
• MA in Interpreting and Translation (English, French, Russian), Lupsio University (now UNINT), Rome
• BA in Languages and Cultural mediation (English, French, Russian), Lupsio University (now UNINT), Ro
• Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), Advance HE

Professional memberships

• European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR)
• DiscourseNet. International Association for Discourse Studies

Student education

I teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses and field trips on environmnetal politics, envirinmental governance and policy; environmental justice; energy justice; the social and political dimension of climate change.