Viktoria Spaiser
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Associate Professor in Sustainability Research & Computational Social Science

I am interested in sustainability research and specifically in how societies can make an accelerated, fair and empowering transition to zero-emissions / zero-pollution. I apply mixed methods, including mathematical and computational approaches to these research questions, working with various data, including social media data, parliamentary records, smartphone data, survey experiment data etc. I have been awarded the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Future Leaders Fellowship award for research on "Understanding normative change to address the climate emergency". Currently, I am also involved in a major effort, involving many researchers from around the world and from various disciplines on understanding social tipping dynamics in the context of the climate crisis.

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News
November 2023, I will be talking about "How can Climate Activism Accelerate Social Change in Response to the Climate Crisis" at the Institute for Analytical Sociology seminar series, Norrköping, Sweden. Attend online here (2 November, 14:30 CET).

September 2023, read here about our exciting project, trialling AI for grassroots-driven visioning of a climate-positive future with marginalised communities in Delhi, India. A collaboration project with Kanchan Joneja and Lakshay Talwar.

July 2023, publication of our paper "How convincing are AI-generated moral arguments for climate action?" in Frontiers in Climate

July 2023, publication of our paper "Moral power of youth activists – Transforming international climate politics?" in Global Environmental Change

June 2023, workshop on "Youth Climate Activism" at the Mis(representation) of Youth Summer School  

March 2023, Tipping Points Discussion Series webinar on "Entering Social Tipping: Norms, Agency, and Scales" with Avit Bhowmik and Keith Smith

March 2023, 1.5 Degrees DAO webinar on "Leveraging positive social tipping dynamics in response to the climate crisis"

January 2023, academic lead on one of the For The Public Good LEEDS 2023 projects. See brief reflection on our project Speculative Futures here.

December 2022, contribution to the panel "Dissecting the outcomes of COP27", organised by PLOS Climate. 

November 2022, contribution to the webinar Climate and Justice along with Serena Bashal, organised by the Horizons Institute 

October 2022, the evidence written by me and Cristina Leston-Bandeira in response to the Mobilising action on climate change and environment: behaviour change enquiry by the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has been cited 12 times in their published report In our hands: behaviour change for climate and environmental goals and has featured in The Guardian article on the report, see here.