Dr Marta Gaworek-Michalczenia

Profile

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Sustainability Research Institute. My work brings together insights from the humanities and the natural sciences to explore the complex relationships between people and nature, and the political dynamics that shape them.

My academic background is multidisciplinary. I began in the natural sciences, focusing on biology and environmental science, before moving into the social sciences to study anthropology, environment and development, and political ecology at University College London. I completed my PhD in Environment and Development at the University of Leeds.

Over the past few years, my research has been based in Ethiopia, following earlier work in Tanzania during my PhD. Much of my work focuses on questions of justice and the politics of environment and development interventions. For my PhD I critically evaluated a high‑profile climate adaptation programme in the East Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. More recently, I examined resilience dynamics in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley in the wake of broad‑scale transformations that have had far‑reaching implications for the food security and livelihoods of marginalised agropastoral and hunter‑gatherer communities.

For my postdoc I am studying different aspects of agropastoral Indigenous knowledge, particularly ethnobotanical knowledge, and its role in supporting livelihoods, food security, and climate adaptation and resilience. I use participatory methods in my work.

Research interests

My research sits at the intersection of human-environment interactions, political ecology, and environmental justice, with a strong interdisciplinary grounding across the natural and social sciences. I focus on rural livelihoods, their marginalisation, and the politics surrounding adaptation and resilience, with particular regional expertise in East Africa.

My work examines how environmental and social changes shape resilience, food security, and everyday political dynamics among rural communities. I am also interested in different approaches to ethnoscience, and the role of Indigenous knowledge in supporting socio-ecological resilience. I use participatory and community engaged approaches. I value collaborative work with local partners, academic colleagues, and NGOs to support more accountable, just, and context grounded environment and development processes.

Qualifications

• PhD, Environment and Development, University of Leeds
• MSc, Anthropology, Environment and Development, University Collage London
• MSc, Environmental Biology, Jagiellonian University
• BSc, Environmental Protection, Jagiellonian University

Professional memberships

• ESRC Climate Change Centre for Economics and Policy
• Priestley International Centre for Climate
• International Association of Society and Natural Resources
• Omo-Turkana Research Network

Student education

For several years, I have served as a Teaching Fellow on the Environment and Development International Field Course in Tanzania, a unique programme that gives students the opportunity to gain hands‑on experience in the field and apply classroom-based learning within a real-world developing-country context.