Saska Petrova

My research and policy contributions are situated at the intersection of precarity, gender, and energy resource use. Working in under-represented communities across the United Kingdom, Europe, South Africa and China, I have interrogated the political governance and contestation of social and environmental injustices. I use insights from political ecology and feminist geographies in seeking to transform knowledge and practice on low-carbon transitions.

I have been involved as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator in over 20 research projects funded by the European Union, several UK research councils, the Royal Geographical Society, Cheshire Lehmann Fund and the Higher Education Academy. Their findings have been published in my monograph on Communities in Transition (Routledge, 2014) while being integrated in multiple decision-making documents and strategies. This includes legislation and policy issued by the European Commission and Parliament, the Jacques Delors Institute, the French Institute for Internatinal Relations, as well as the UK National Union of Students.

2024: Professor, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester.

2022: Reader, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester.

2018-2022: Senior Lecturer, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester.

2013-2018: Lecturer, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester.

2010-2013: Research Associate, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES), University of Birmingham.

2007-2008: Co-ordinator of the International POP Elimination Project for Central and Eastern Europe, Prague.

2007-2008: Secretary General of the Dioxin, PCBs and Waste Working Group within the International POPs Elimination Network, Berkeley.

2004: Consultant, Registry of Air Pollutants, Technolab, Skopje (subcontractor of the Ministry of Environment, North Macedonia).

2003-2004: Consultant, ‘Conservation of the Pelister National Park’ project, co-ordinated by ProNatura and the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation.

1998-2000: Chairperson, Youth Action for Development and Environment, North Macedonia.

1995-1998: Co-ordinator for international co-operation, youth branch of Friends of the Earth Macedonia.

2011: PhD in Applied Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czechia.

2008: MSc in Environmental Protection, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czechia.

2003: BEng in Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, North Macedonia.

My research addresses current debates in human geography, political ecology and energy studies, with the aid of evidence from a wide range of places and communities.

• I have investigated how the transformative governance of forests and nature protection in post-socialist and post-colonial countries can lead to systemic disadvantage, and how top-down regulation is resisted and challenged from below.
• My work on the everyday experiences of precarity and vulnerability has explored how energy politics and patterns of energy consumption shape low carbon transformations in Eastern Europe, Southern Africa and China.
• I have drawn attention to the institutionalisation and contestation of regimes of austerity with regards to energy politics and the rendering of new ‘infrastructural subjects’ across various European countries.

Past and current research projects include:

• 2024-2029. PI. Gender and Precarity at the Energy Frontier. Consolidator Grant. European Research Council / UK Research and Innovation. £1.8m.
• 2021-2024. Co-I. Low Carbon Futures Studentship. Universities of Manchester and Melbourne. £150k.
• 2021-2025. PI for UoM. Power up!Social energy market players to tackle energy poverty. Horizon 2020. €2m.
• 2021-2022. PI for UoM. Gender, Race & Social Inclusion – Net Zero Transitions. The Carbon Trust. Service contract.
• 2019-2023. Co-I. POWERTY: Renewable energies for vulnerable groups. Interreg Europe. €1m.
• 2018-2021. Co-proposer. European Energy Poverty: Agenda Co-Creation and Knowledge Innovation . European Co-operation in Science and Technology. €700k.
• 2016-2019. Co-supervisor. Practices on the move: Investigating trajectories of water and energy consumption in China. NWDTC CASE/Unilever Studentship. £50k.
• 2016-2019. Co-I, Work package lead. Urban transformation in South Africa through co-designing energy services provision pathways. ESRC/Newton fund. £500k.
• 2016-2019. PI. Domestic nexus: unpacking the interconnectivity of energy and water demand. UoM Humanities - SIRF. £14,107.
• 2016. Co-organiser. Funding for a workshop on ‘Urban Infrastructural Innovation and Learning’. UoM JDS Conference Fund Award. £2,275.
• 2013-2014. PI. EVENT- Energy vulnerability and alternative economies in Northern Greece. Royal Geographical Society. £2,985.
• 2013-2014. Co-I. CHARISMA-Community approaches to retrofit in Manchester. UoM Humanities - SIRF. £25k.
• 2013-2014. Co-I. InterDEW-Inter-disciplinary demand forecasting for energy and water. UMRI. £33,132.
• 2012. Co-I. Postgraduate Symposium on Household Energy Consumption, Technology and Efficiency. Midlands Energy Graduate School. £1300.
• 2011-2013. Co-I. InTreAct - Investigating residential and business energy consumption via student-led action research. Higher Education Academy. £29,625.