Julia Davies

Julia is a PlanAdapt network member and is currently based in the United States, where she is pursuing her PhD in Geography in the University of Arizona’s School of Geography and Development.

Julia’s expertise lies in the field of adaptation and vulnerability to global environmental change, and she is interested in understanding complex issues at the intersection of climate change and development. Her PhD research focuses on the urban food security, poverty and climate change nexus in Zambia, Kenya, Botswana and South Africa. Her work forms part of a broader project that investigates the linkages between coupled human-natural systems and across rural-urban continuums in sub-Saharan Africa. Core areas of Julia’s current research include the barriers to urban agriculture, the governance of urban food systems and the relationships between social capital, gender and urban food security in southern Africa.

Prior to beginning her PhD, Julia was based at the University of Cape Town’s African Climate and Development Initiative, where she worked as a Senior Research Assistant on the five-year Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project. ASSAR used insights from multiple-scale, interdisciplinary work to improve the understanding of the barriers to and enablers of effective, sustained and widespread adaptation to climate change out to the 2030s. Through her work on ASSAR’s ‘Research into Use’ agenda, Julia has developed an interest in effective science communication. As a 2020 Carson Scholar, she is receiving hands-on training in this field.

Julia holds a BSc (Honours) in Environmental and Geographical Science and MSc in Climate Change and Development from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.