Founding members and LAC Research Network Coordinators
Júlia Bussab Fonseca - PhD Researcher in International Development at Global Studies
Graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the University of São Paulo (USP), with a Masters degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Júlia is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Sussex in climate finance with a focus on the Amazon region and indigenous peoples. She has dedicated more than 10 years of her career working as a consultant in projects in several fields related to climate change, forest, biodiversity protection and indigenous peoples. She accumulates projects implemented with banks such as the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB); private and public enterprises such as Coca-Cola and Sabesp; with the third sector, such as The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Greenpeace; and with multilateral and international organisations including the Green Climate Fund (GCF), among others.
As a Brazilian professional, student and researcher living, studying and working in the UK, Júlia co-founded the LAC Research Network because she knows the importance of having a dedicated space and a community for Latin Americans where they feel the sense of belonging even when they are miles away from home.
Guy Edwards, PhD candidate in International Relations, focusing on the great powers, the climate crisis and Colombia
He is also a scholar in the Climate Social Science Network looking at climate obstruction in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. Guy was previously a senior consultant at the IDB, co-director of Brown University's Climate and Development Lab, a non-resident fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, and the resident manager of the Huaorani Ecolodge in the Ecuadorian Amazon. He has a Master's degree in Latin America Studies from the University of London.
His first book, A Fragmented Continent: Latin America and the global politics of climate change, was published by MIT Press in 2015 and he has also published work with Climate Policy, Global Americans, Plos Climate, Washington Post, New York Times, Foreign Policy, EU-LAC Foundation, The Guardian, Americas Quarterly, La Tercera and El Espectador.
Having been travelling and working in Latin America and the Caribbean since 2003, Guy co-founded the network to create a space for the Sussex community to come together to share research and ideas on this fascinating region, which is too often ignored in the UK and Europe.
Charlotte Austwick, PhD, Researcher in Social Anthropology at Global Studies
She graduated with a BA degree in Classical Archaeology and Drama. She has a MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Kent and a PGCE in Secondary Education from Bath Spa University. Much of her previous research has focused on Central American Mayan heritage and the preservation of the languages Q’eqchi’ and Mopan. Her PhD research focuses on how current relationships and attitudes towards the natural environment in Guyana are being transformed as a result of environmental education for Wai Wai and Wapishana adolescents. Her work concentrates on the voices of people who live in forests and how indigenous knowledge can be beneficial in the quest for solutions to the current environmental crisis.
Charlotte co-founded the LAC Research Network because she wanted to establish a space that encouraged academic collaboration and create a greater community within the university for those working in the region.