MANCHESTER - Key Persons


Aarti Krishnan

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer in Sustainability and Innovation

Adisa Azapagic

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Sustainable Chemical Engineering

Aditya Ramesh

Job Titles:
  • Presidential Fellow ( Academic

Alan Warde

Job Titles:
  • Emeritus Professor of Sociology

Alice Swift

Alice Swift is undertaking a PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester's School of Social Sciences funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Alison Browne

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Geography

Andrew McMeekin

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Innovation

Andy Lockhart

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Anke Bernau

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature

Anna-Maria Köhnke

Anna-Maria completed both her MA in Political Economy (Research Route) and her BA (Hons) in PPE at the University of Manchester.

Annette Wright

Job Titles:
  • Councillor

Caroline Cornier

Job Titles:
  • Researcher at the Global Development Institute
Caroline Cornier is a doctoral researcher at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester. Her research is located at the intersection of Global Political Economy and Postcolonial Theory focusing on economic, political and financial North-South relations. Her doctoral thesis concerns the unsustainable intersection of commodity dependence and financial subordination in the West African Cocoa Sector.

Catherine Casson

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Enterprise

Catherine Walker

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate
  • Co - Investigator )
Positionality: UK-born white Christian woman; full-time academic (early career) with PhD in human geography.

Chloe Best

Job Titles:
  • Research Institute Administrator ( SCI )

Chunhua Ye

Chunhua Ye graduated from Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK, with an MSc in Marketing.

Claudia Henninger

Job Titles:
  • Reader in Fashion Marketing and Management

Dale Southerton

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Professor

Daniel Welch

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer in Sociology

David Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Chairman in Soil Microbial Ecology

Debbie Cox

Job Titles:
  • Institute Manager
Debbie studied social sciences at degree level and has a Masters degree in Information Management from Sheffield University. She is also a qualified teacher and has a teaching degree in Adult, Further and Higher Education from Manchester Metropolitan University.

Dr Jenna Ashton

Job Titles:
  • Artist and Curator and Lecturer in Heritage Studies, the University
  • Lecturer in Heritage Studies

Dr Safina Islam

Job Titles:
  • Head of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Resource Centre and Education Trust ( AIURRC )

Dr Shanon Shah

Job Titles:
  • Director, Faith for Climate

Filippo Oncini

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Researcher

Frank Boons

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Innovation and Sustainability

Hannah Battersby

Hannah Battersby is a PhD student in the Philosophy department at the University of Manchester. Her research concerns ecological justice and the extension of justice to the more-than-human community.

Heather Urquhart

Heather Urquhart began her PhD with the University of Manchester in September 2021 after completing a MRes in Human Geography at the University of Glasgow and a BA (Hons) In Human Geography at Durham University.

Helen Holmes

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Holly Crossley

Job Titles:
  • Research Institute Administrator ( MIOIR )

James Evans

Job Titles:
  • Professor in Human Geography

James Jackson

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Jawad Amin

Job Titles:
  • Solicitor, Chair of Khizra Mosque and GM Council of Mosques

Jennifer O'Brien

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer in Geography

Jeremy Brice

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer in Sustainability and Innovation

John Andrews

John is a doctoral researcher at Alliance Manchester Business School working on sustainable food system transitions, with a focus on veganism and 'alternative proteins'. He is particularly interested in the intersection of sustainability transitions and social movement studies.

Josephine Mylan

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Sustainability and Innovation

Julia Kasmire

Job Titles:
  • Research Fellow

Julie Froud

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Financial Innovation

Karl Holmberg

Karl Holmberg is a PhD student from the Department of Political Science at Lund University, Sweden, who is visiting the SCI during the spring semester of 2024. His research explores the cultural political economy of plastics, focusing on how (single-use) plastics came to be rationalised in Sweden from 1945-1970 in the wake of the emergence of ideas of disposability and consumerism.

Linqing Xia

Linqing Xia is a Sociology PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Welch and Alison Browne. Her doctoral research mainly focuses on the teleoaffective formations of sustainable consumption in relation to China's postmodern consumer culture.

Luke Yates

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Magdalena Rodekirchen

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Magdalena Svetlana

Magdalena graduated from The University of Manchester with a MSc in International Development: Environment, Climate Change and Development.

Mahadi Sharif Mahamed

Job Titles:
  • Councillor

Malte Rödl

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Research Fellow

Maria Sharmina

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer in Energy and Project Management

Mark Harvey

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Professor

Martin Burgess

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Martina Ayoub

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Mat Paterson

Job Titles:
  • Director
We do not have a blueprint for sustainability transitions. Instead, we focus on how current forms of social and economic activity, and how they are constantly changing, shape the pursuit of sustainability. These include shifts in business practice and structure, intensified inequalities, social and technical innovation, global migration, novel social identities and practices, and political polarisation. The SCI works as a close-knit, interdisciplinary community of critical social science scholars at various career stages to carry out this research agenda. We do so across diverse empirical contexts and deploy a diverse range of social science methodologies. We also do so with a focus on developing the work and careers of sustainability-oriented researchers working across the social sciences. The SCI influences thinking on sustainable consumption within and beyond academia by developing meaningful relationships through long-term partnerships and collaborative projects, as well as leading and participating in wider knowledge-sharing activities through seminars, conferences, and networks. We were established in 2008, with the principal aim of enhancing research and insight into one of the world's most pressing challenges: climate change. Despite 20 years of rhetoric regarding the urgent need to address modern consumption patterns, we were among the first major research institutes to place consumption and its unsustainability at the heart of research enquiry. We sought to utilise the unique strengths of The University of Manchester to bring interdisciplinary insight and clarity to the topic.

Matthew Paterson

Job Titles:
  • Professor of International Politics

Maya Sharma

Job Titles:
  • Collections Officer, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Resource Centre and Education Trust ( AIURRC )

Michael Shaver

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Polymer Science

Mike Hodson

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Cities, Innovation and Society

Mingwei Zhang

Mingwei is undertaking a PhD programme in Science, Technology & Innovation Policy, fully funded by the Alliance Manchester Business School.

Muna Ahmed

Job Titles:
  • Social Worker and Khizra Mosque Youth Support Worker

Nafhesa Ali

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Nuura Ahmed

Job Titles:
  • Funded Research Intern
Nuura is a second-year environmental science student who is the events officer in the Somali Society and has an interest in sustainability. She will be helping to write reports, create blogs, and assist with social media for the project. Separately from the TIES project, Nuura is working on a fundraising campaign with Islamic Relief and Human Appeal to send aid to Somalia and Northeastern Kenya to help communities affected by climate change and drought.

Paul Anthony Knowles

Paul Anthony Knowles is a PhD student in the English and American Studies department and his research is focused on the short story and ecocriticism. He is concerned with how literature can expose the anthropocentric violence inflicted on the past, present, and future of a landscape and his research promotes an ecocentric reconceptualization of human relationships with the more-than-human world.

Paul Tobin

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer / Associate Professor in Politics

Pawan Kumar Srikanth

Pawan Kumar Srikanth joined AMBS and the SCI as a fully funded PhD student in January 2022 researching pathways to circulating critical metals. He holds an M.E. in Environmental Engineering and a B.E. in Civil Engineering.

Pritish Behuria

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer in Politics, Governance & Development

Pujita Yadava

Pujita is PhD student associated with Sustainable Consumption Institute and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (with MACE).

Richie Nimmo

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Salah Abdisamad

Job Titles:
  • Community Representative

Sampriti Mahanty

Job Titles:
  • Lecturer at UCL

Sandra Jazmin Barragán Contreras

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate

Shefali Kapoor

Job Titles:
  • Head of Neighbourhoods, Manchester City Council ( MCC )

Sherilyn MacGregor

Job Titles:
  • Principal Investigator )
  • Professor of Environmental Politics
Positionality: Canadian-born white woman; immigrant to the UK; full-time academic (professor of environmental politics) with PhD in environmental studies.

Simin Fadaee

Job Titles:
  • Senior Lecturer in Sociology

Stanley Wilshire

Job Titles:
  • Economist
Stanley is a political economist and PhD student interested in the relationships between the political, economic and technical challenges involved in driving rapid and just transitions within capitalist societies.

Stefan Bouzarovski

Job Titles:
  • Professor of Geography

Steffen Hirth

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Researcher

Tally Katz-Gerro

Job Titles:
  • Co - Investigator )
  • Honorary Reader
Positionality: Israel-born European Jewish woman; migration background; first generation in higher education; full-time academic (professor of sociology) with PhD in sociology.

Torik Holmes

Job Titles:
  • Research Fellow

Udeni Salmon

Job Titles:
  • Research Associate from August 2023 )
Positionality: UK-born Sri Lankan heritage Buddhist woman; full-time academic (early career) with PhD in business studies.

Ulrike Ehgartner

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Researcher

Wendy Walker

Job Titles:
  • Research Support Officer ( Finance Lead )

Zarina Ahmad

Job Titles:
  • Researcher
Zarina will work with Sherilyn, Nafhesa and Catherine on the Leverhulme sponsored project on Environmental Sustainability in Immigrant Households. Zarina was listed at Number 18 in the Women's Hour Power List in 2020 for her work on increasing participation in environmentalism in Scotland.