About the Project Team

Research, Student Assistants & Interns

 

Ayşem Mert

(PI)

Ayşem Mert is Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at Stockholm University (SU) and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (GCR), at University of Duisburg-Essen. Her work focuses on post-structural discourse theory, critical fantasy studies and other critical approaches to democracy and environment on various scales (particularly in the Anthropocene) and public-private cooperation in sustainability governance. Other than EPOC, her current projects are Post-Corona Global Cooperation: Imaginaries of new world orders (GCR), Occupy Climate Change! (KTH/FORMAS). She is a member of Shadow Places Network and Earth System Governance Research Programme, and she is a member of the editorial board of the journals Earth System Governance and International Environmental Agreements (INEA). Ayşem is the author of Environmental Governance through Partnerships A Discourse Theoretical Study (Edward Elgar).

Jason Glynos

Jason Glynos is a professor of social and political theory at the Department of Government, University of Essex, where he is co-director of the Centre for Ideology and Discourse Analysis (cIDA) and Essex Chair of the DeSiRe network (Democracy, Signification and Representation). He has published widely in the areas of poststructuralist political theory, focusing on theories of ideology, democracy, and freedom, the philosophy and methodology of social science, and critical fantasy studies. Through collaborative research projects Jason explores ways discourse analysis and psychoanalysis can generate critical perspectives on topics related to alternative community economies and the critique of political economy, valuation practices, and discourses about populism and democracy. He is co-author of Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory, co-editor of Politics and the Unconscious and Discourse Theory: Ways Forward for Theory Development and Research Practice, associate editor of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, and international advisory board member of Subjectivity. Jason will take the lead in project module 4: Future-making.  

Elise Remling

Elise Remling, is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Governance, University of Canberra, Australia. She is also an Associate Researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Sweden.

Elise has a background in both academic and policy-oriented research in the field of climate change and sustainable development. Located at the interface between human geography, political science, and development studies, Elise’s work is driven by a keen interest to shine a critical light on the social and political implications of climate and environmental changes. Elise received a PhD in Environmental Sciences from Södertörn University, Sweden, in 2019. In her thesis she explored the politics of climate adaptation decision-making by focusing on the more subtle, discursive moves in public policy discourse. Drawing on Poststructuralist Discourse Theory, she looked specifically at the role of discursive power, depoliticization and the affective fantasies animating policy responses. Her work has been published in high impact academic journals, including in Climate Policy, Environmental Politics, Climate and Development, Regional Environmental Change and Critical Discourse Studies. Elise is a Research Fellow with the Earth System Governance Project. She will be leading project module 2: Mapping.

Jelle Behagel

Jelle Behagel is Associate Professor with the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group (FNP) of Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His expertise is in the democratic governance of nature, and how forest discourses constitute forest politics. He moreover has studied and written extensively on political practices of forest and nature conservation across the global-local nexus. Building on this expertise, Jelle works today on exploring the fantasmatic role of forest and nature in the age of the Anthropocene. He will be leading the project module 3 Negotiating.

Julia Feine

(Research Assistant)

Julia Feine works as a research assistant in the EPOC project. She recently graduated from Stockholm University with a master’s in Political Science with a focus on Environmental Social Studies. In her Master’s thesis, she used post-structural discourse theory to analyse future imaginaries in global ocean governance. Besides working on the EPOC project she is also employed as a research assistant in other projects at the political science department at Stockholm University. She has further experience in environmental governance from her internship at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and her former occupation as a student assistant in the project “Bio-economic Power in Global Supply Chains: Approaches, Impacts and Perspectives on Certification and DueDiligence for Biogenic Mass Raw Materials (Bio-Power)“. Julia has a background in International Relations and other research interest areas of her are future imaginaries, nature values and participatory governance practices.

Eike Plhak

(Student Assistant)

Eike Plhak works as a student assistant in the EPOC project. He is currently studying a master’s in Environmental Social Science, majoring in Political Science and holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Sustainability Studies. Eike has volunteered in various organisations focusing on sustainability education. He is particularly interested in the topics of just transition and comparing different national approaches – to the climate crisis and beyond.

Märta Florentina Eklund

(Student Assistant)

Märta Florentina works as a student assistant for the EPOC project. She is currently studying the Master’s Programme in Environmental Social Science at Stockholm University, majoring in Political Science. She has a B.Sc. degree in Political Science from Mälardalen University in Västerås. In her bachelor’s thesis, she investigated Swedish municipalities’ interpretations of the Swedish beach protection law, using postmodern theories of power with a combination of values on nature. Her particular fields of interest are global and local environmental justice, values on nature, and perspectives on power.

Max Dörr

(Student Assistant) (2021-2022)

Max Dörr works as a student assistant in the EPOC project. He is currently studying a master’s in Environmental Social Science, majoring in Human Geography and holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration. Max has formerly interned in the Institute for Ecological Economy Research, focusing on sustainable production and consumption, and the Network for Developmental Policy Saarland centred around Education for Sustainable Development. Max is particularly interested in the topics of energy transition, alternative economic models and biodiversity protection.

Gabriela Ortega

(Student Assistant) (2021-2022)

Gabriela Ortega is a student assistant for the EPOC project. She is currently pursuing her master’s in Environmental Social Science at Stockholm University. Her previous experiences include research on technocrats and internships: with agroforestry plots in coastal Ecuador and at the Embassy of Ecuador in the Netherlands. She holds a (Hons.) B.Sc. focused on Governance, Economics and Development from Leiden University. Her interests are in environmental justice and prosperity within ecological boundaries.

Sedagül Yavuz

(Intern) (2022)

Sedagül Yavuz is a graduate student in Master of Science in Social Studies of Gender with a Major in Political Science at Lund University. She has been involved in civil society in Turkey and Sweden in various positions such as volunteer, researcher and project coordinator on gender equality, and children’s rights. Her research interests include care economy, civil society, nationalism and colonial history.

Neil Muscat

(Student Assistant) (2021-2022)

Neil Muscat was employed as a student assistant, who is currently studying Environmental Social Science at Stockholm University (SU) at master’s level. He also furthered his experience as an intern at International IDEA focusing on democracy and inclusion. His bachelor’s from the University of Malta focuses holistically on Earth Systems. Neil also possesses experience in engineering consultancy, GIS and media editing. His dedication ties closely to fields of environmental justice, gender issues and corruption.

Nefes Özen

(Intern) (2021-2022)

Nefes Özen graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Political Sciences with Honors degree, and most recently, she did her internship at the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization in Turkey. Her fields of study are local governments and environmental policy, environmental problems and management, sustainability and climate change.