Professor Lucie Middlemiss

Profile

I joined the School of Earth and Environment in 2004 as a Teaching and Research Fellow, and completed my PhD in the School in 2009. I became a Lecturer in Sustainability in 2009, and an Associate Professor in Sustainability in 2017. From September 2017 to August 2021 I was Co-director of the Sustainability Research Institute. I was promoted to professor in September 2021. Before I joined the school I did an MSc in Environmental Management at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, and worked in publishing for 5 years.

I am Chair of a new initiative called Fair Energy Futures in the university, which aims to raise the profile of energy research dealing with injustice and inequality, and consolidate networks in the university on this topic. I am also co-leader of the Leeds Relational Energy Group. I co-lead a project ‘Fuel Poverty Evidence’ in partnership with Sheffield Hallam and Liverpool John Moores Universities, which aims to raise the profile of the high quality academic research on this topic in the UK.

Responsibilities

• Chair of Fair Energy Futures initiative as part of Energy Leeds

Research interests

I wrote the first textbook on Sustainable Consumption (Routledge, 2018), and have research interests in sustainable consumption, energy poverty and a low carbon transition. My research connects deep understandings of consumption in everyday life, with planning, measuring, monitoring and interventions by policy-makers and practitioners. My research on energy poverty brings together qualitative insights into the lived experience, with critical policy analysis. In more recent work, I have broadened this focus to address the low-carbon transition more generally, investigating its impacts on low-income households, and articulating a roadmap for a socially inclusive transition. I also led a team who developed a relational approach to understanding energy interventions, exploring how social relations shape people’s engagement with home energy retrofit. In the ongoing Wellbased project, I am leading international qualitative longitudinal studies on the impacts of energy interventions in energy poor homes. My research is highly topical, and attracts attention from stakeholders in the UK and beyond, something I have encouraged through my leadership of Fuel Poverty Evidence, a project promoting the use of academic evidence on energy poverty for public purpose.

Recent projects

I have recently been involved in a project on vulnerability in the transition to Net Zero, led by the Institute for Community Studies. Read our final report here.

I am also a member of the Leeds Relational Energy Group.

PhD supervision

I supervise six PhD students: Ness Al-Shaikhly, Mathilde Reinard, Martina Ricci, Rebecca Sale, Sop Satchwell and Irene Gonzalez Pijuan (based at Sheffield Hallam). I have also recently hosted students from China, Denmark and Brazil.

Previous students: Yael Arbell, Sarah Bradbury, Yana Manyukhina, Imogen Rattle, Amy Ross, Harriet Thew, David Wingate, Georgios Zampas and Lin Zhang.

• Mapping the Production-Consumption Gap, Health Outcomes and Potential Circular Economy of the Leeds Food System
• Transforming essential provision systems through eco-social corridors (HABITATION-CORRIDORS)
• Understanding family and community vulnerabilities in transition to net zero
• WELLBASED

Student education

I contribute to the following modules:

• Sustainable Food Consumption (FOEV5103M)
• Change for Sustainable Development (SOEE3785)

I wrote Sustainable Consumption; Key Issues, released in 2018 published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis, (discount code is FLR40) an introductory textbook for students interested in consumption and environmental issues. I regularly supervise dissertations on sustainable consumption, sustainable communities and energy poverty topics.

Research groups and institutes

• Social and Political Dimensions of Sustainability
• Energy and Climate Change Mitigation
• Sustainability Research Institute
• Sustainable Food Systems