Role
Dr. Heather Alberro is a Lecturer in global sustainable development in the School of Arts and Humanities.
Research areas
Heather's PhD thesis involved an ecocritical examination of radical environmental activists (REA's) as contemporary ecotopian manifestations amid the socio-ecological perturbations of the Anthropocene.
Key areas of research/interest include:
Critical social theory, utopian/green utopian studies, environmental sociology, literary ecocriticism, political ecology, and critical posthuman studies. She also specialises in qualitative research methodologies with difficult-to-reach groups.
External activity
Heather serves as Co-Convenor for the Political Studies Association's (PSA) environmental politics specialist group, and as the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Officer for the Utopian Studies Society.
Heather also frequently publishes on news platforms such as The Conversation and the Independent.
Sponsors and collaborators
Publications
- Alberro, H. (2018) ‘A Modern Ecotopia’, in Babaee, R. My Utopia, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 103 – 108.
- Alberro, H. (2019). 'Methodological considerations for the special-risk researcher: A research note'. Methodological Innovations, 1-6.
- Alberro, H. (2020) 'Valuing Life Itself: On Radical Environmental Activist Post-Anthropocentric Worldviews'. Environmental Values, (6), 669-689.
- Alberro, H. (2020). Book Review: The Treatise on the Whole-World by Édouard Glissant. Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature, 1(4), 55-56.
- Alberro, H. (2021) 'In the Shadow of Death: Loss, Hope and Radical Environmental Activism in the Era of Biological Annihilation’. Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, (8)2, 8-27.
- Alberro, H. (2021) 'Interspecies' in The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Anthropocene. Cambridge University Press.
- Alberro, H. (2021) ‘Within and Against Eco-Apocalypse: On the Terrestrial Ecotopianism of Radical Environmental Activists’. Utopian Studies, 23(1), 36-55.
- Washington, H.; Piccolo, J.; Gomez-Baggethun, E.; Kopnina, H.; Alberro, H. (2021) ‘The Trouble with Anthropocentric Hubris, with Examples from Conservation. Conservation, 2, 285–299. https://doi.org/10.3390/ conservation1040022
- Alberro, H. (2021) ‘The Contemporary Utopian Spectrum’. ÖkologischesWirtschaften 3. (36) | DOI 10.14512/OEW360319
- Alberro, H., 2022. HG Wells, earthly and post-terrestrial futures. Futures, 140, p.102954.
- Alberro, H. (2022). Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures. Utopian Studies, 33(1), pp. 162-167.
- Alberro, H. [Forthcoming] 'The Great Refusal’: Radical Environmental Resistance Against Contemporary Ecological Breakdown’ in Routledge Handbook on Non-Violent Extremism, Routledge.
Press expertise
- Heather did a live segment on NBC EURONEWS on September 17th 2018 regarding the French-British deal over the ‘scallop wars’
- Heather was interviewed for and quoted in the WiKiTribune article, ‘The fight over fish is real, and it’s only going to get worse’, published on October 4th 2018.
- Heather was interviewed for and featured in the article, 'How to Fix London', by wired.co.uk in November 2019.
- Heather did a live segment on NBC EURONEWS on November 26th 2019 regarding the COP25 climate summit and global actions required to close the emissions gap.
- Heather did a live segment on NBC EURONEWS on February 6th 2020 regarding the Finnish government's decision to green-light uranium mining, despite its 2035 carbon neutrality target.
- Heather was interviewed for and featured in the article, ‘Seattle’s ‘autonomous zone’ belongs to a grand tradition of utopian experiments’ by grist.org, June 2020.
- Heather was interviewed for a live EURONEWS segment on December 11th 2020 regarding the Climate Ambition Summit co-hosted by the UK in the lead-up to COP26
- Live BBC UK interview on the Blue Origin William Shatner space launch on 13 October 2021
