Stefania Barca the new visiting Zennström climate professor

Stefania Barca, from the University of Coimbra in Portugal, is to be Uppsala University’s fourth Zennström Professor of Climate Change Leadership. In her research, she focuses particularly on issues of justice connected with environmental and climate change.

Every year or two, a new holder is invited to take up the Zennström chair, in the ten-year series of visiting professorships funded by a previous donation to Uppsala University from the entrepreneur Niklas Zennström.

“The climate issue is a complex challenge to society that calls for knowledge across different research fields. The Zennström Professorship of Climate Change Leadership, with just this kind of boundary-crossing emphasis, is key for the University’s development in this area. We warmly welcome Stefania Barca to Uppsala University,” says Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt.

Barca works in the fields of social science, economic history and social history. She concentrates especially on justice issues related to the environment and issues concerning class and climate. As visiting professor at the University, she plans to engage in teaching, academic discussions and meetings (colloquia) about climate justice, and other activities.

“Issues of justice are a vital part of work on climate leadership. The countries and citizens most in need of improvements in living conditions are also often those worst affected by the impact of climate change. Rich nations and wealthy citizens need to take greater responsibility for changing their way of life. Stefania Barca’s research addresses precisely these issues, and also has connections with indigenous peoples and, more generally, is about class and justice in terms of climate-change leadership. So she fits extremely well into the series of Zennström professors,” says Professor Marika Edoff, who chairs the recruitment committee for the professorship.

For further information, please contact the Uppsala University press office, tel: + 46 70-167 92 96 or email: press@uu.se

Interview with Stafania Barca.