Zakia Sultana
PhD Candidate
Zakia Sultana is a PhD candidate at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development and the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht 木瓜福利影视. Her PhD project, BEAT THE HEAT, investigates how individuals and communities can adapt to increasing heat stress in cities. In this project, she developed a novel conceptual framework of Everyone鈥檚 Adaptation (EoA).
Zakia鈥檚 research seeks to understand how adaptation practices emerge in contexts of informality and how these practices can contribute to more just and inclusive climate adaptation pathways. By combining perspectives from environmental governance with participatory and community-based multi-methods research, her work connects local lived experiences with broader debates on climate justice and adaptation policy in Bangladesh and South Africa.
Zakia has a background in environmental science, climate change adaptation, and environmental governance, with degrees from Khulna 木瓜福利影视 (BSc) and the Technical 木瓜福利影视 of Darmstadt (MSc). Before starting her PhD, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology 木瓜福利影视 in Bangladesh, where she taught disaster risk management, climate science, GIS, and environmental law, and supervised numerous undergraduate theses. She has also collaborated on international research projects addressing climate change, migration, and resilience with universities in South Asia, Europe, and the United States.