Dr

Kiera

Chapman

Dr Kiera Chapman is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, specialising in attention, flourishing and the humanities. Her interdisciplinary research combines arts and humanities, social science and ecology to explore how natural and urban environments are shaped, valued and contested. Her work examines biodiversity loss, climate change, environmental justice, urban planning and the relationship between people and nature. She is particularly interested in why environmental crises often fail to inspire meaningful action, how race and property values influence suburban landscapes, and how planning policies affect biodiversity and local communities. She is a Co-Investigator on the groundbreaking UKRI-funded 'Planning for Nature' project at the University of Sheffield, and will join the University formally in the new year as Research Fellow on Jason Slade's 'Planning and Populism' project. 

 

Alongside her academic work, Kiera is an activist who works with the NGO Wild Justice. She is also a commercial writer and author of two popular books (Nature's Calendar: The British Year in 72 Seasons and The Ritual Year: A New Calendar of Britain's Feasts, Festivals and Folklore, both published by Granta). Finally, she has recently co-curated the exhibition Plain Things/Wonders, which runs until August 2027 at the Bodleian library.