The EJAtlas (Global Atlas of Environmental Justice) is a collaborative research and dissemination project between activist groups and scientists. It documents and catalogues these conflicts on an online interactive platform. The Atlas is directed at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. It is supported by the ENVJUST project (ERC Advanced Grant 2016-2021), and the ACKnowl-EJ (Academic-Activist Co-Production of Knowledge for Environmental Justice, 2015-2018) funded by the Transformations to Sustainability Programme.
Every participant will be assigned an internal mentor and research coordinator, according to the topic and geographical area of research, who will assist and guide the research. The specific time frame of the research internship is decided between the participant and the research mentor dependent upon their mutual schedules (preferably between October and June). Interns can use facilities at ICTA (desk and computers) in a shared room for visiting students, participate in reading groups and research in progress seminars on Environmental Justice issues, attend the ICTA seminars.
Specifically (but not exclusively), they are looking for collaborators willing to work on topics and regions of the world which are still underrepresented.
Thematic focus
● Conflicts over hydropower plants and related infrastructures globally (Daniela Del Bene d.delbene@gmail.com)
● Conflicts over waste management, with a preference for those involving waste-pickers (Federico Demaria federicodemaria@gmail.com)
● Conflicts related to conservation policies and natural market -based solutions (Eleonora Fanari e.fanari86@gmail.com)
● Human health-related conflicts (i.e pesticides exposures, heavy metals, air pollution etc.) grettelnavas98@gmail.com)
● Conflicts over coal-related projects (e.g. coal mining, coal-fired power plants) under China’s economic influence (e.g. the Belt and Road Initiative) (Bowen Gu, bowen.gu@uab.cat)
Other potential topics that will be taken into consideration are:
● Conflictive renewable energy projects
● Conflicts over oil palm plantations
● Conflicts over airports/aerotropolis
● Conflicts involving violence and death of community defenders
● Conflicts over coal
● Conflicts over oil spills and compensations
● Agrarian and biomass conflicts
● Conflicts on sand mining
● Conflicts around Geoengineering projects
● Ocean Grabbing (fisheries, deep-sea mining, aquaculture, etc)
● Nuclear conflicts (uranium mining, nuclear plants, radioactive waste disposal, etc)
● Urban socio-environmental conflicts (greening of cities, infrastructures, etc)
→ For these topics, please write to the project email account: ejoltmap@gmail.com
Geographical focus (prior knowledge of language or context is advantageous)
● Brazil (Grettel Navas grettelnavas98@gmail.com)
● China and East Asia (Juan Liu Juan.Liu@uab.cat)
● Mexico (Yannick Deniau yannick.deniau@gmail.com)
Other potential regions that will be taken into consideration are:
● Sub-Saharan Africa
● Russia, including the Arctic and Siberian region
● Central Asian countries
● North America (USA and Canada)
● Southeast Asia (especially Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar)
● Afghanistan
● Iran
● Pakistan
→ For these regions, please write to the project email account: ejoltmap@gmail.com
If you are interested, please contact with the person in charge and send over the following:
1. A tentative list of three cases of conflicts you would like to begin to research on and include into the database
2. A writing sample for one of the three cases you chose (around 1,000 words). Please check this entry as an example (what is the issue, historical/political context, who are the actors, how the opposition and resistance developed, why resistance is there, what is the situation now). http://ejatlas.org/conflict/kandadji-dam-on-the-niger-river
3. A motivation letter, highlighting your interest in the topic and your past experience in research, engagement in activist groups
4. Your CV
They will get back to you as soon as they examine your application. Please note that they will be able to only reply to complete applications. May you have any further query, please contact them at ejoltmap@gmail.com
