Another fruitful year of collaboration between the Law School and GESA

Law School staff and students have continued to contribute in a variety of ways to the work of Global Environment and Society Academy (GESA) of the University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Apolline Roger and Dr. Elisa Morgera have organised or otherwise supported the 2013/2014 activities of the GESA Doctoral Network, which was created in 2012 to bring together the community of Ph.D. students working on environment and society-related projects across the University.

Dr Roger supported the organisation of the second GESA Doctoral Network’s Research Day on 19 May 2014, in cooperation with the Institute for Academic Development (IAD). The event, titled "Visions for a Sustainable Future", provided a learning-by-doing opportunity to engage in the development of a multi-disciplinary funding proposal. In addition, Dr Morgera and Dr Roger organised a workshop on trans/inter/multi-disciplinarity on 1 July 2014, which was open to the Doctoral Network and GESA Master students. The event featured an interactive presentation by Prof Roderick Lawrence (University of Geneva), who is a member of the Swiss td-net network on transdisciplinary research. It was chaired by Dr Catherine Lyall (School of Social and Political Science) and also served to identify specific training needs within the Network and possible targeted training opportunities to be facilitated by GESA in the future.

Dr. Roger also served as a discussant during a lecture on “Pollution and Health” held on 24 June 2014, which was organised by GESA in cooperation with the Global Health Academy as part of the series titled “Environment and Health under the Microscope” for the Year of Environment and Health.

Last but not least, Laurie Van der Burg, LLM student in Global Environment and Climate Change Law, proposed and is now setting up a GESA Environmental News Discussion and Blogging Platform. This will serve as an online tool for postgraduate students and staff involved in environment-related programmes across the University of Edinburgh to exchange ideas and offer expert opinions on environmental news. The launch of the Platform is scheduled for September 2014.