Christ Church currently hosts two sustainability-focused research networks.
Interdisciplinary Research Network
The Interdisciplinary Research Network (IRN) aims to facilitate cultural and organisational change toward structures, policies and processes supportive of interdisciplinary research. It does this by organising events and workshops for staff to meet and network across disciplines, Schools and Faculties, and liaising with other research networks and centres to encourage collaborative approaches to research.
Much of sustainability research is inherently interdisciplinary, often considering the social, cultural and economic causes and consequences of and interactions with environmental issues and changes. Because of this, IRN works closely with the Academy's Sustainable Research Group to facilitate interdisciplinary sustainability research. You can join the network by emailing the IRN directly.
SHE Network
The Sustainability in Higher Education (SHE) network aims to bring together those working in Higher Education with an interest in sustainability.
In May 2020 Christ Church hosted the fifth SHE conference ‘The fierce urgency of now: Navigating paradoxes in sustainability education’. You can watch presentations from the conference via the interactive programme.
Read about our ‘paradox model’ in this open access paper:
Following on from the success of our conference series, we have kept the conversations going by forming and hosting a SHE Network with a monthly discussion group. It provides a forum for critical discussions about challenging issues in sustainability education, and was set up to share sustainability-focused research and practice in Higher Education.
Members of the network are invited to propose and lead monthly discussion sessions based on readings, podcasts, films or other resources which explore different aspects of sustainability education. Whilst sessions may introduce examples of activity from individual institutions (e.g. embedding sustainability in the curriculum), they need to be based around questions or issues of wider significance and offer opportunities for critical engagement and debate.
The network is open to anyone working in, or linked to Higher Education, with an interest in sustainability education, and is facilitated by the Academy.
To join, please subscribe to our Jiscmail (click 'subscribe' under 'options' on the left).
For more details, or any administrative queries, please contact Maz. To offer suggestions for future discussion sessions, please contact Adriana.
Postgraduate Research
Our staff are experts in many areas of sustainability and we welcome proposals for postgraduate research (Masters by Research/PhD) with an explicit sustainability focus.
If you are thinking about becoming a postgraduate researcher at Christ Church, you are welcome to contact our Graduate College directly, or contact a member of our team to chat about current opportunities to pursue research in sustainability.