DSA Ireland announce winners of the Robert Chambers Awards 2023. Congratulations to all our recipients!
Robert Chambers Awards
The 2023 Robert Chambers Award recipient was Dr Danny Marks, Dr. Michelle Ann Miller and Dr. Sujitra Vassanadumrongdee for their paper 'Closing the loop or widening the gap? The unequal politics of Thailand's circular economy in addressing marine plastic pollution.'
Dr. Danny Marks is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Politics and Policy in the School of Law and Government of Dublin City University. Prior to this position, he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the Department of Asian and International Studies of City University of Hong Kong. He also was previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia project at the Munk School of Global Affairs of the University of Toronto. Dr. Marks has spent a number of years conducting research and working in Southeast Asia, particularly in the field of environmental governance. He has worked for a number of organizations in the region, including the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific Governance Hub, the Rockefeller Foundation, ActionAid and the NGO Forum on Cambodia. Dr. Marks completed his PhD dissertation, An Urban Political Ecology of the 2011 Bangkok Floods, at the University of Sydney. He received his MA in International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His research interests are political ecology, environmental justice, climate governance, disaster risk reduction, with a focus on Southeast Asia.
Dr Michelle Miller is an interdisciplinary social scientist working at the science-policy interface of environmental governance. Her current research focuses on how climate research can inform equity-oriented sustainability transitions. This interest has developed through her engagement over the past two decades with the societal and ecological transformation of Southeast Asia. Dr. Miller holds a PhD in political science and has worked since 2010 as a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. In this role, she has co-developed multi-year research grants on: (a) Climate Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia (2022 – 2027); and (b) Disaster Governance in Urbanising Asia (2014-2017), funded by Singapore’s Ministry of Education. Previously, she held research and lecturing positions at Deakin University and Charles Darwin University. she has authored or co-authored over 60 academic publications (international journal articles, book chapters and a monograph) on issues of governance, resource distribution, climate change adaptation, social justice, conflict resolution and urbanisation.
Dr. Sujitra Vassanadumrongdee is a senior researcher at the Environmental Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University (ERIC), Thailand. Her areas of expertise are policy and institutional analysis on waste management, economic tools for environmental management, and public participation in environmental management. During the past seven years, her main research has been related to solid waste management, focusing on plastic waste and food waste, extended producer responsibility, and the circular economy policy and strategy. She was a project manager for the Chula Zero Waste Initiative, which established the university's waste management system.
At the national level, she is a member of the Plastic and Electronic Waste Management Sub-committee under the National Environmental Board and A member of the Steering Committee on Packaging Management in accordance with the Circular Economy and Extended Producer Responsibility, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. At the local level, she serves as a member of the Waste Management Policy Committee of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
Sujitra holds a doctorate and master’s degree in environmental economics from Hiroshima University, Japan. She completed her Bachelor in Political Science (International Relations) from Chulalongkorn University.