Kelly is a PhD candidate in the Urban Futures Studio at the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development. Her work is part of the , which is a collection of research projects that explore pedagogical avenues to navigate the uncertainty of the interrelated planetary crises.
Kelly鈥檚 research focuses on the dynamics between hope and university-based sustainability education. Her work surveys the interdisciplinary literature on hope, which offers her a lens to reflect on cases of sustainability education, and offers insights for active experimentation with sustainability education. More information about her research can be found on this project page.
Her background is best captured through a personal 鈥榖ig question鈥� that she developed in her Bachelor鈥檚 degree, and has inspired and connected her commitments ever since: How might I engage in public dialogue about our future with climate change? She is drawn to better understand and organize a diverse array of changemaking processes for sustainable futures, in which diverse societal actors collaborate in activating, interactive, creative and deliberative manners. In this line of thinking, she specialized in Earth Sciences and Science Communication during her Master's degree. In addition, she has worked for a consultancy focusing on scenario-planning, a Dutch Ministry where she focused on climate diplomacy and communications, two think tanks on the future of food and the circular economy, and a design-fiction studio focusing on sparking societal debate about emerging technologies.