Arianna Tozzi

Overview

I am an environmental human geographer researching processes rural agrarian transformations and grassroots-led approaches to social and environmental change. My research draws on environmental humanities, feminist political ecology and feminist science studies to understand how intersecting agrarian-climate crises are experienced, contested and reimagined through everyday farming practices, particularly those of women and marginalised actors.

I am currently a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Geography working on a project titled “Feminist Agrarian Futures: colonial cotton its legacies and a search for alternatives”. The research traces the history of cotton cultivation in Vidarbha, in central India, and explores how women-led agroecology groups may provide a way out of the present crisis of agrarian livelihood in the region. The project combines archival research with creative ethnographic methodologies with women farmers experimenting with alternative farming methods. Weaving together history and a speculative orientation towards alternative agrarian futures the research explores what alternative pathways are being articulated though the practices, knowledge and politics of women working the land. The research is part of long-term collaboration with activists’ groups campaigning for the recognition of women farmers’ rights across India and will lead to creative and art-based dissemination activities.

Before starting the Hallsworth fellowship, I completed a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Manchester in 2023 and was an Early Career Research Fellow at the Johnn Rylands Research Institute. My doctoral research challenged current approaches to climate resilience in rainfed regions of Maharashtra, India arguing that in monsoon-dependent regions water policies should be reframed from the perspective of the monsoon and its shifting temporal and spatial dynamics. Findings from my research have been published in academic journals (Progress in Human Geography, Geoforum, The Geographical Journal, Environment and Planning E) and book chapters (Routledge Handbooks of Gender and Water Governance and of Political Ecology).

Prior to joining the University of Manchester, I worked in India for three years as a Research Associate, collaborating with the University of Minnesota, Institute on the Environment. My work focused on analysing the long-term sustainability of decentralized solar energy systems. Between 2015 and 2017, I worked as a Project Officer at The Climate Group in London, working on projects around energy efficiency.

Research Interests

• Agrarian Futures
• (Rain)Water
• More-than-human geographies
• Agroecology
• Interdisciplinary approaches to geographical research
• Art-based research and collaborations