Liz Watson BSc PhD

University Senior Lecturer and Fellow of Newnham College

My research focuses on the relationship between environmental and social change in Africa. It examines the ways in which people make their environments and landscapes, and how they respond to, and are challenged by, environmental change. It also examines the ways different environment and development policies frame different livelihood options, especially in the dryland regions of East Africa.

Career

1992-1993: Research Assistant, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
1998-1999: Research Fellow, School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex
1999-2000: Joint Assistant Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge and Newnham College.
2000-2002: University Assistant Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge and Fellow of Newnham College
2002-2010: University Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge and Fellow of Newnham College
2010-present: University Senior Lecturer and Fellow of Newnham College

Qualifications

BSc Anthropology, University College London
PhD, University of Cambridge

Research

Liz Watson is a member of the Political Ecology group. Her research interests include:

Identities, landscapes and livelihoods
Climate change, security and Livelihoods

Research students

Samuel Spiegel - 'The Political Ecology of Poverty, Crisis and Gold: Rethinking Resource Governance and Participation in Mining Communities'

PhD Supervision

Liz Watson is interested in receiving expressions of interest from potential PhD students who would like to carry out empirical studies broadly in the area of the impact of climate change and climate change discourses on livelihoods and policies in East Africa.

Publications

Selected publications

Harrison, E.A. and Watson, E.E. 2012. 'Mind the Gap: Disciplinary Dissonance, Gender, and the Environment' Society and Natural Resources, online publication, January 2012.
Watson, E. E. 2010. 'A "Hardening of Lines": Landscape, Religion and Identity in Northern Kenya'. Journal of Eastern African Studies, 4 (2): 201-220.
Watson, E. E. 2009. Living Terraces in Ethiopia: Konso Landscape, Culture and Development. Woodbridge and New York: James Currey (an imprint of Boydell and Brewer) East Africa Series.
Schlee, G. and Watson, E.E. eds 2009 Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-East Africa, Volume I: Ethiopia and Kenya. Oxford : Berghahn Books.
Schlee, G. and Watson, E.E. eds. 2009 Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-East Africa, Volume II: Sudan, Uganda and the Ethiopia-Sudan Borderlands. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Black, R. and Watson, E.E. (2006). 'Local community, legitimacy, and cultural authenticity in postconflict natural resource management: Ethiopia and Mozambique' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 24 (2): 263 - 282.
Watson, E.E. (2006). 'Culture and Conservation in Post-Conflict Africa' in S. A. Radcliffe ed. Culture and Development in a Globalizing World: Geographies, Actors and Paradigms. London: Routledge.
Watson, E. E. (20006) 'Making A Living In The Post-Socialist Periphery: Struggles Between Farmers And Traders In Konso, Ethiopia' Africa, 76 (1).
Watson, E.E. (2005) Gender-Sensitive NRM Research-for-development. DFID NRSP Programme Development Report PD123: Gender Sensitive Research For Development. Cambridge UK: Department of Geography: University of Cambridge.
Black, R., Harrison, E.A., Schafer, J. and Watson, E. E. (2005) 'Natural Resource Management and Local Institutions in "Post-Conflict" Mozambique and Ethiopia' European Tropical Forest Research Network News: Special Edition: Forests and conflicts, Vols 43/44: 54-57.
Watson, E. E. (2004). 'What a dolt one is! Language learning and fieldwork in Geography' Area, 36 (1): 59-68.
Watson, E. E. (2004). 'Agricultural Intensification and Social Stratification: Konso contrasted with Marakwet', in Mats Widgren and John Sutton eds. Islands of Intensive Agriculture in Eastern Africa. Oxford: James Currey; Nairobi: British Institute in East Africa. Pp. 49-67.
Watson, E. E. (2003) 'Examining the potential of indigenous institutions for development: the case from Borana, Ethiopia'. Development and Change. 35: 287-309.
Adams, W.M. and Watson, E.E. (2003) 'Indigenous Irrigation and Soil Erosion, Marakwet, Kenya. Land Degradation and Society, 14: 109-122.
Watson, E. E. (2002) 'Capturing a Local Elite: The Konso Honeymoon' in Wendy James, Don Donham, Alessandro Triulzi and Eisei Kurimoto eds. Remapping Ethiopia: Socialism and After, (James Currey and Ohio University Press), pp198-218.

Teaching

Liz Watson teaches across all levels of the Geographical Tripos and on the M.Phil in Environment, Society & Development.

External activities

Member of Manager's Committee, African Studies Centre
Trustee, Camvol
Member of Council of British Institute in Eastern Africa