DC 4 – Transformative learning while engaging with biodiversity

Individual PhD Project Information

Doctoral Candidate: Beatrice Guardini

Host institution: Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Supervisory team: Prof. Niki Frantzeskaki (PhD main supervisor, Utrecht University), Prof. Katharina Hölscher (PhD co-supervisor, Utrecht University), Prof. Huiwen Gong (PhD co-supervisor, University of Stavanger), Janny Straatsma (secondment host, City of Utrecht)

Enrolment in Doctoral School: Graduate School of Geosciences, Utrecht University

PhD project description

This doctoral project investigates the transformative learning experiences of young adults derived from their engagement with biodiversity in university towns. The project will examine the quality of university students’ out-of-door learning experiences while they engage with and for the sake of biodiversity where they live. The aim is to engage in participatory action research with the students residing in the city to inform the creation of future campus urban living labs for biodiversity. This will be done by giving voice to young adults, enabling them to shape their learning experiences on campus and supporting their participation in decision-making processes concerning biodiversity conservation and restoration. By employment of place-based models and theories, the project aims at assessing and sustaining both youth’s environmental stewardship and community development abilities and providing them with opportunities to learn and act in the local socio-environmental context.

The research will result in a review and dissemination of students’ learning experiences, including shifts in mindsets and paradigms and a critical examination of what, and how transformative learning can take place around the university campus. A new conceptual framework will be co-created and co-designed with young people and other societal actors on how to transform university campuses into urban living labs enhancing people’s connections with biodiversity and youths’ needs.

The project’s overall objectives include (1) the examination of how campus interventions and campus living labs can be planned and implemented by analyzing the current state of the art on the possibilities of young people to engage and contribute to biodiversity restoration on campus; (2) the exploration of how campus initiatives can feed into urban decision-making processes concerning biodiversity restoration while involving students in co-creation with other societal actors; (3) the development of scholarly and practical knowledge on the success factors and pitfalls of campus interventions and living labs for biodiversity through a place-based model co-designed with students living in the city. The activities will involve multiple actors, including students, student associations, the City of Utrecht and National Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug. The project will include two planned secondments of three months at the City of Utrecht and the University of Stavanger. The first secondment aims at gathering data and building connections with local city officers to explore the role and challenges around the urban green infrastructure in the city and opportunities for co-creation with citizens. During the second secondment, findings and a conceptual framework co-designed during the first case study (City of Utrecht) will be further developed to explore possibilities and conflicts around the concept of knowledge transfer in relation to geographically embedded learning processes.

Planned secondments:

• University of Stavanger, Norway (3 months in Fall 2026): Visiting Fellowship at the Research School in Economics and Business Administration
• City of Utrecht, the Netherlands (3 months in Fall 2025)