Charis Enns

Charis Enns is a Presidential Fellow in Socio-Environmental Systems at the Global Development Institute. Her work focuses on how processes of change – such as environmental change, land use change and livelihood change – alter human-animal interactions. Her current research projects  focus on: pathways to inclusive biodiversity conservation (2023-2027); citizen science and community-engaged research on zoonoses (2023-2026); and community land rights, rights of nature and historical land injustices (ongoing).

Charis' research sits at the intersection of critical development studies, human, environmental and animal geographies, and political ecology. Her approach to research is politically engaged and influenced by the scholar-activism tradition, placing emphasis on collaborative and collective learning, reflection and action.

Charis recently published Settler Ecologies: The Enduring Nature of Settler Colonialism in Kenya (University of Toronto Press, 2024). The book is available open access, and can be downloaded here (as of April 2024).

Charis is the lead for Inclusive and Propsperous Futures for Sustainable Futures at the University of Manchester. Charis also co-convenes the Human-Animal Research Network at the University of Manchester

Charis is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Global Development Institute. She teaches on environment and sustainability, biodiversity, climate change and development.

Charis is eager to work with PhD students and Post-Doctoral Researchers interested in how human-animal relations are changing in areas undergoing rapid change, as a result of environmental change, land use change, urbanisaiton or related trends.