Lopa Saxena

Biography

Lopa holds a PhD in Environmental Economics and Environmental Management from the University of York, UK. She has an MPhil in Applied Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in India. Prior to joining Coventry University, she worked as an independent researcher in various capacities on team projects led by academics at a number of Universities in the UK. She was also engaged as a research consultant and was an honorary Non-Resident Fellow of South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), a regional think-tank in South Asia. In addition she has worked in a voluntary capacity with community organisations in Coventry. Her research experience and interests span a wide range of areas including: wetland conservation; agricultural sustainability; food security, gender and technology transfer in the context of climate change adaptation; reflective practices in natural disaster risk reduction; women and entrepreneurship. Her research is informed by mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies with data collection undertaken at various sites in India and the UK. Her current research work addresses food and communities, including: food justice and food sovereignty; resilient food systems; food governance; food waste and food poverty; the role of community food growing and gardening in promoting health and well-being; and, impact of local and agroecological enterprises on sustainable and just growth. She has a keen interest in gender, health and wellbeing as a cross-cutting issue across sustainable development and environmental management studies. 

Research Interest

Environment and Development; Social Enterprises; Sustainable Food Systems; Community Self-organisation for Resilience; Gender and Development; Social/Women entrepreneurship; Participatory action-research