Jennifer MacKay is a PhD student and Lecturer in Sociology within the Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education.
- Overview
- Research Interests
- Teaching and Learning
I started my part-time PhD at QMU in January 2019, which aims to examine the critical differences of community waste reduction groups in Scotland and India through a feminist political ecology focus. My PhD supervisor is Eurig Scandrett.
I am also a Lecturer in Sociology at QMU, having started a part-time post in 2020. I teach Political ecology, environmental justice, popular education, public sociology and education, and I supervise undergraduate dissertations.
I have recently been a research fellow conducting and analysing research on fracking communities alongside Eurig Scandrett, and I am now currently involved in developing a collaborative research project on Citizen Science at QMU.
Before coming to QMU I wrote a chapter for a book edited by Anne Harley and Eurig Scandrett entitled ‘Environmental Justice, popular struggle and community development’, which was published in 2019. Prior to this I worked for NGO’s and ran a small charitable organisation called SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development) which focused on popular education methods, community development within international social and environmental justice projects and links with Scotland. I have a long history of being involved in activism and am particularly related to waste and the global anti incineration movement. I have worked with a number of environmental campaign groups in Scotland and globally.
My primary research areas are based in environmental, climate and social justice, zero waste, activism & social movements and feminist political ecology. I primarily focus on methods which involve participatory approach, namely popular education and the pedagogy of Paulo Freire.
Active Research Interests:
- Political Ecology
- Feminist Political Ecology
- Environmental Justice
- Waste and Zero Waste
- Decolonizing knowledge
- Feminist Pedagogy
- Popular Education
- Actor Network Theory
Research Methods:
- Qualitative
- Observational
- Participatory/Popular Education
- Ethnography
- Feminist and Acton Research
- Dialogical process
- Video Participatory
I teach on modules within the BSc (Hons) Psychology and Sociology and BSc (Hons) Public Sociology degree programmes. Topics I teach include Public Sociology Education and political ecology, and I supervise undergraduate dissertation projects.
