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A woman, Emily Boyd. Photo.

Emily Boyd

Professor, Docent

A woman, Emily Boyd. Photo.
Contact details
Organisation
  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Visiting address: Biskopsgatan 5, Lund
  • Room number: Josephson 108
  • Service point: 59
Webpage
Other affiliations
  • Deputy coordinator
    LU Profile Area: Nature-based future solutions
  • Member of Strategic Research Area
    BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Emily Boyd is Professor in sustainability studies and a leading social scientist with a specialist focus on environment and climate change. Her unique focus has been on the interdisciplinary nexus of poverty, livelihoods and resilience in relation to global environmental change, focusing on issues pertaining to cities, sustainable land use, water and deforestation in Africa, Latin America, South-East Asia and Europe. Her work has been published across the social and sustainability sciences with notable publications on resilience, adaptation and the politics and practice of community participation in the new carbon economy.

Research Areas

Sustainability science, climate adaptation and resilience, development, governance.

Research 

Emily Boyd's current research focus in on undesirable resilience, politics of loss and damage and intersectionality in societal transitions, including on transformations under climate change. 

Past research and leadership

Emily Boyd was previously a professor in resilience geography (2013-2016) and a reader in environment and development (2011-2013) at University of Reading. She has previously had a number of leadership roles as research division lead for global development at University of Reading, including departmental impact lead and research director in the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Sciences (SAGES), Reading University. 

Her past research includes fieldwork in Mozambique where she was co-lead on a UN award-winning research project with informal settlements in Maputo, and on resilience and food security among coffee and cocoa producers in Ethiopia and Ghana as part of an ESPA, NERC-ESRC-DFID funded consortium project.

Teaching

Since, 2000 Emily has taught and coordinated a number of sustainability and development related courses. Her teaching portfolio includes topics on sustainability, geographies of resilience, climate change and development, and research methods.

At LUCSUS, Emily Boyd runs the LUMES masters course Resilience and Sustainable Development (2018-). 

She has been graduate supervisor to up to 40 PhD and Masters theses. 

 

Publications

Displaying of publications. Sorted by year, then title.

Short Biography

Emily Boyd is a Professor in Sustainability Science. She is a leading social scientist with a background in international development, environment and climate change, with focus on the interdisciplinary nexus of poverty, livelihoods and resilience in relation to global environmental change. Emily Boyd is currently leading work on undesirable resilience, politics of loss and damage and intersectionality in societal transitions, including on transformations under climate change. 

Emily Boyd  is an author for the IPCC, IPBES, and UKCCRA and a Earth System Governance Senior Fellow. 

Last updated: 21 Aug 2025 | emily [dot] boyd [at] lucsus [dot] lu [dot] se