Role
Dr Raihana Ferdous is a Lecturer in Geography. She is the Module Leader for the BSc (Hons) Geography modules Geographies of Global Change and Principles and Practices in Geography, and co-teaches on the Geography Politics and Ethics module.
Career overview
Dr Raihana Ferdous obtained her PhD from the Geography Department at Durham University.
Her research interests orbit around interconnected topics such as emerging energy technology, ethical partnership, environmental sustainability, waste economy, ethical consumption and critical development.
Prior to moving to Nottingham Trent University to lecture in Geography, Raihana worked as a Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Glasgow and Durham University.
Research areas
Raihana’s research is concerned with the development of sustainable energy and technology and in their shaping of the human and more than human worlds. Raihana has an extensive background in both Human Geography and Social Anthropology and has worked with various inter and multi-disciplinary teams.
Raihana is curious about different disciplinary approaches and always brings her multidisciplinary perspective to research that is empirically located in the Global South. Methodologically, Raihana values long-term ethnographic engagement and co-production of knowledge engaging with creative methods such as visual, storytelling, and following the networks and materials.
Research projects
Kitchen Life Project
The Kitchen Life project is an interdisciplinary research pilot on sustainable cooking as it relates to energy, air pollution, and nutrition in two regions in Africa and Asia. Taking the ‘kitchen’ as the unit of analysis, three interlinked aspects will be investigated: everyday cooking practices, cooking economy and cooking materials. A cultural understanding of everyday kitchen life in Bangladesh and Malawi will contribute essential and often overlooked insights to the related fields of energy, sustainability, and health. This project is funded by SFC-GCRF.
Off the Grid: Notes from a forgotten Island (Research Documentary)
In collaboration with a filmmaker (Meghna Gupta), Raihana produces a research documentary Off the Grid: Notes from a Forgotten Island based on her PhD research. The film documents the arrival of solar energy to the community and the impact it has on everyday life. Off the Grid explores what the experience of a life without electricity means both emotionally and materially, as one goes from light to dark over the course of a day. The documentary has been screened at various academic and non-academic events and has won several awards.
Energy on the Move: longitudinal perspectives on energy transitions among marginal populations
Drawing on comparative lessons across four cities in two continents (Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria and South Sudan), this study examines the energy practices of poor women, men and young people living in informal settlements in peri-urban areas.
Research grants and awards
- 2020/21 Co-I for Kitchen Life: Towards Clean Cooking Services in Bangladesh and Malawi funded by GCRF-SFC (£74,176)
- 2017/2018 Co-I for Energy on the Move: longitudinal perspectives on energy transitions among marginal populations (a comparative study) funded by DFID-ESRC (£206,316)
External activity
Research Group Memberships:
Sponsors and collaborators
- Durham University
- University of Glasgow
- Sustainable Futures Global Network
Publications
- Perry, M., Sharp, J., Aanyu, K., Robinson, J., Duclos, V. & Ferdous, R. (2022) Research partnerships across international contexts: a practice of unity or plurality? Development in Practice. (DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2022.2056579)
- Ferdous, R., Perry, M., Watuleke, J., Virhia, J., Yeshitella, P., Strachan, Z.; Catanzaro, B. (2021). A Critical Resource for Understanding Impact for Participatory Research. Sustainable Futures Network.
- Kumar, A., Ferdous, R. , Luque-Ayala, A., McEwan, C., Power, M., Turner, B. and Bulkeley, H. (2019) Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Energy Research and Social Science, 48, pp. 166-176. (doi: 10.1016/j.erss.2018.10.005)
- Gregson, N. and Ferdous, R. (2015) Making space for ethical consumption in the South. Geoforum, 67, pp. 244-255. (doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.02.009)
- Gregson, N., Crang, M., Ahamed, F. U., Akter, N., Ferdous, R. , Foisal, S. and Hudson, R. (2012) Territorial agglomeration and industrial symbiosis: Sitakunda-Bhatiary, Bangladesh, as a secondary processing complex. Economic Geography, 88(1), pp. 37-58. (doi: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.2011.01138.x)
- Gregson, N., Crang, M., Ahamed, F., Akhter, N. and Ferdous, R. (2010) Following things of rubbish value: end-of-life ships, ‘chock-chocky’ furniture and the Bangladeshi middle class consumer. Geoforum, 41(6), pp. 846-854. (doi: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2010.05.007)
Press expertise
Raihana has press expertise related to energy, sustainable energy development and technology.
Course(s) I teach on
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Undergraduate | Full-time / Sandwich | 2023COURSE
Geography - BSc (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/animal-rural-and-environmental-sciences/ug/bsc-hons-geography
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Undergraduate | Full-time / Sandwich | 2024
COURSE
Geography - BSc (Hons)
https://www.ntu.ac.uk/course/animal-rural-and-environmental-sciences/ug/next-year/bsc-hons-geography