Postgraduate research students

Becca Cole

I am a geographer who explores the use of carbon sinks (specifically fjords and peatlands) as climate mitigators in Patagonia, Southern South America. My work looks to understand the significance of these carbon sinks contribution to mitigating climate change, the differences between fjord and peatlands ability to bury carbon in long-term storage, and also the vulnerabilities they face under increasing anthropogenic disturbance and rising temperatures and an altered precipitation regime.

Keywords: carbon sinks; climate mitigators; Patagonia; Southern Cone; climate change

Sancha Conway Holroyd

Sancha Conway Holroyd is a PhD student in Biological Science at The University of Exeter. Broadly, her research is looking at the potential of innovative technology, specifically nanobubbles, in supporting the development and enhancement of sustainable king prawn production in Guyana, South America. She has a particilar interest in ecophysiology and its applications to managing health in marine species production and trade. Her research is in partnership with Hubu AquaFarm in Guyana.

Keywords: Nanobubbles; king prawn production; Guyana; ecophysiology

Ellie Fox

I am a PhD Student in Geography at the University of Exeter. My PhD focuses on how mining extractivism and climate change affect glaciers in Chile, and how this influences water access for local communities. Specifically, I am researching how glacier protection, water governance, and environmental justice are enabled and impeded by the integration of scientific data, methods, and knowledge into legislation. The research sits at the intersection of science and technology studies, human geography, and critical remote sensing. Overall, I specialise in using interdisciplinary and participatory methods to address change in hydrosocial worlds in the Andes, in a justice-oriented way.

Keywords: Glaciers; mining; law; environmental justice; interdisciplinary

Lucía Guerrero

Lucía is a Sociology PhD student at the Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter. She is broadly interested in how technologies interact with social and individual bodies—by healing them, harming them, or both—and how different social actors make sense of these interactions. Her ongoing PhD research looks at disability produced through police violence during mass demonstrations in Colombia.

Keywords: disability; less-lethal weapons; violence; social protest; narrative

Katy Humberstone

I am a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Visual Studies at the University of Exeter (co-supervised with the University of Southampton). My research is kindly funded by the SWWDTP2 (South West & Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council). In my thesis, I focus on contemporary heritage in Hidalgo, an area of central Mexico to which Cornish miners historically migrated. My research is interdisciplinary, and I tie together concepts which span areas including linguistic and cultural heritage (and revitalisation), cultural and communication studies, linguistic/semiotic landscapes, (visual) anthropology, and sociolinguistics. I am also very interested in artistic and engaged methods of research. In my spare time, I play folk music and undertake various artistic endeavours - I am keen to explore how creative practice can support the shaping of research and academic impact.

Keywords: Cornwall; Mexico; cultural heritage; cultural studies; semiotics; minority languages and cultures

Lauren Huntzinger

I am a PhD student at both University of Exeter and University of Bristol. My research focuses on Latin American literature, eco-fiction and the processes of rewriting. I am interested in the rewriting and reimagining of place from a contemporary perspective, examining how climate change has influenced our ability to think, feel and narrate our surroundings. Currently, I am working on a chapter on the city of Cuernavaca in Mexico. My research will also look at rewrites from the Argentine Pampas and the Bolivian Amazon. In the 2025-26 academic year, I will be teaching in the Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies department.

Keywords: rewriting; eco-fiction; Mexico; contemporary literature; Argentina

Clara Kleininger-Wanik

I am a third-year PhD student in Film by Practice, co-supervised by the University of Exeter and the London Film School. With a background in visual anthropology and an interest in multispecies relationships, I am currently researching the relationships humans make with other animals in the Chacahua lagoon, on Mexico's Pacific coast and how these can be represented on film. To work towards this, I am making a collaborative visual multispecies ethnography. In Chacahua multispecies encounters include conservation and monitoring practices, as the lagoon is one of Mexico's oldest national parks, as well the Afromexican ontology of being tonal, sharing life with an animal, a bond between a human and a particular animal out in the lagoon, which links their abilities, wellbeing and deaths.

Keywords: Mexico; multispecies ethnography; visual anthropology; conservation; Afromexican

Leonardo Medeiros

I am a PhD student at the University of Exeter, in the Department of Geography (Physical). My interests and role in the department are mainly focused on the implications of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) performed by microbes in the roots of native nodulating legume trees on plant performance and traits, such as photosynthetic traits, nutrient allocation and cycling. My interests also involve the contributions of BNF to terrestrial ecosystems used in silvopastoral systems, especially in relation to carbon storage, soil fertility and pasture productivity, particularly in nature-based solutions practices.

Keywords: Amazon; legumes; biological nitrogen fixation; nature-based solutions; silvopastoral systems

Felix Pym

Felix is a PhD researcher in the Geography department at the University of Exeter. Felix is a palaeoecologist whose research investigates the timing and ecological consequences of Ice Age megafaunal (large herbivore) extinctions in South and Central America. He specialises in using spores of coprophilous fungi (SCF) to reconstruct past megafaunal presence during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Felix uses pollen, charcoal, and nutrients to explore how the disappearance of megafauna impacted Neotropical ecosystems. In the context of the ongoing biodiversity crisis, his research offers insights into the long-term and possible future consequences of extinctions, with implications for modern conservation and ecosystem management. Felix is also interested in science communication and has developed educational materials for conservation initiatives such as Mountain Tapir Forever in Colombia. His broader interests include rewilding, fire activity, and the role of megafauna in modern-day ecosystems.

Keywords: Colombia; Panama; Palaeoecology; Spores of coprophilous fungi; Microfossils

Zoe Spencer

I am a PhD student in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies at the University of Exeter, co-supervised with the University of Reading. My research focuses on contemporary women’s writing from Ecuador, its translation, and circulation worldwide. Some of the authors that I am interested in are Mónica Ojeda, María Fernanda Ampuero, Natalia García Freire, and Gabriela Ponce Padilla.

One of the key motivations behind my research is to understand the impact of recent marketing labels such as the ‘New female Latin American boom,’ ‘Latin American horror,’ and more recently ‘Andean gothic.’ On a textual level, I am interested in how these writers engage with questions of autofiction/life writing, gender, and sexuality, exploring the role of literature as activism from a feminist and decolonial perspective.

Keywords: Ecuador; women’s writing; translation and publishing; life writing; activism

Sam Wilson

My name is Sam and I am PGR Student in Film Studies at the University of Exeter. My current research project is a thesis that explores the stylistic and thematic developments of the films of Luis Buñuel during his Mexican period (1947-1965). I have a passion for Latin America cinema, specifically the works of Luis Buñuel, Emilio Fernández, Matilde Landeta, Alfonso Cuarón, Glauber Rocha, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Lucía Puenzo.

My writing experience includes producing academic work on the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, the nature of authorship in Mexican filmmaking and discussing concepts of race, representation and nationhood in Latin American film. I have also produced some published work for the website Taste of Cinema about the non-fiction works of Agnès Varda and little seen gems of South Korean film.

Keywords: Luis Buñuel; Golden Age of Mexican Cinema; Latin American film