Miss Alice Essam
Research student
Overview
After completing a Masters focused on globalisation and its impacts in Latin America, alongside work which exposed me to the variety of approaches institutions and individuals take to address climate change and promote ‘sustainability’, I decided to focus on relocalisation and practical sustainability. I embarked on a year-long permaculture course in Bristol intended to equip participants with the practical tools for grassroots solutions to contemporary global challenges. I became interested in the possibilities of plant medicines, particularly local plants oftern considered weeds, and sought further learning opportunities and occasions to engage in the political socio-ecological role of herbal medicine. My current research explores relationships between people and local plants, and transformational practices and knowledges that emerge between them.
Qualifications
- MSc Social Science Research Methods, Cardiff University (2018-2019)
- Dissertation: Nurturing human-nature relationships through the practice of wild medicine
- MSc Globalisation and Latin American Development, UCL Institute of Americas, Distinction (2014-2016)
- Dissertation: Contested notions of sustainability in the Argentine soya industry
- Awards: UCL Excellence Bursary; Allende Best Dissertation 2016; Dean’s List 2016
- BA International Development and Spanish, University of Leeds, First Class (2008-2012)
Publication
2024
- Essam, A. 2024. "Not just plants, but also plants": A political ontology of Pohã Ñana, the medicinal plants of the Guarani-Kaiowá. Agoriad 1(1), article number: 1.6. (10.18573/agoriad.13)
- Essam, A. 2024. Book Review: Paulo Basta et al. (Eds.) Pohã ñana: Ñanombarete, tekoha, Guarani ha Kaiowá arandu rehegua. Agoriad 1(1), article number: 1.13. (10.18573/agoriad.8)
2022
- Baker, S., Bruford, M. W., MacBride-Stewart, S., Essam, A., Nicol, P. and Sanderson Bellamy, A. 2022. COVID-19: Understanding novel pathogens in coupled social–ecological systems. Sustainability 14(18), article number: 11649. (10.3390/su141811649)
Articles
- Essam, A. 2024. "Not just plants, but also plants": A political ontology of Pohã Ñana, the medicinal plants of the Guarani-Kaiowá. Agoriad 1(1), article number: 1.6. (10.18573/agoriad.13)
- Essam, A. 2024. Book Review: Paulo Basta et al. (Eds.) Pohã ñana: Ñanombarete, tekoha, Guarani ha Kaiowá arandu rehegua. Agoriad 1(1), article number: 1.13. (10.18573/agoriad.8)
- Baker, S., Bruford, M. W., MacBride-Stewart, S., Essam, A., Nicol, P. and Sanderson Bellamy, A. 2022. COVID-19: Understanding novel pathogens in coupled social–ecological systems. Sustainability 14(18), article number: 11649. (10.3390/su141811649)
Research
- Political ecology
- Medicinal plants
- Critical plant studies / ethnobotany / philosophical study of plants and nonhumans
- Epistemologies, ontology and (indigenous) knowledge forming