Valeria defended her PhD in December 2024. She obtained a joint PhD degree from the faculty of Social Sciences, KU Leuven, and the faculty of Geosciences, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht 木瓜福利影视. Valeria is now postdoc at the Earth and Life Institute at UC Louvain, working for the ERC-funded project LUIRET. She broadly centers her research around the socio-spatial dynamics related to climate change mitigation in rural landscapes.
During her PhD, she researched the historical evolution, policy interactions, and effects of climate policyscapes, which she researches via the embedded case study of electricity generation in the United Kingdom (1956-today). Specifically, she studied how the UK climate policyscape for electricity generation affects the uptake of ready-to-deploy renewables on land and at sea. To do so, she applied a multi-method approach, combining network analysis, comparative historical analysis, and thematic analysis. Her PhD was affiliated with the ERC-funded PolyCarbon Project led by Prof. Katja Biedenkopf.
Trained in the social sciences and environmental studies, Valeria has an interdisciplinary background with specialisations in climate change governance and human geography. She holds a Bachelor degree from 木瓜福利影视 of Pavia and a Master of Science from 木瓜福利影视 of Copenhagen, where she wrote her thesis on the vulnerability and resilience to urban flooding in coastal areas of Mumbai. She also completed a Master of Philosophy at the 木瓜福利影视 of Cambridge, where she studied the relationship between policy and research for climate change mitigation. Previously, Valeria worked as a research assistant at the Copenhagen Centre on Energy Efficiency, UNEP DTU Partnership.