Lexi Daoussis


26748452@sun.ac.za

Supervisors: Dr. Maike Hamann

Field of research

  • Values of nature
  • Environmental rights (rights of nature and human rights)
  • Relational approaches to transformations towards sustainability and social-ecological futures
  • Participatory methods and engagement with the more-than-human world
  • Creative and collaborative facilitation and learning approaches

Profile

Lexi holds a BA in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Development from Stellenbosch University.

Lexi’s current inquiry looks at the types of values of nature that are associated with environmental rights, and what the implications are for transformations towards sustainability. A lifelong interest in human and environmental rights initially led Lexi to study the relationship between climate-induced migration and international human rights law (in)ability to respond in her undergraduate thesis. Prior to this, her undergraduate research explored how organising, and activism contributes to socio-ecological sustainability through community building in southern Chile (2018); and contributed to capacity building efforts focused on water resiliency in the Solomon Islands (2019). During her summers as an undergraduate, she gained insight into the private sectors’ relationship to environmental services by interning at an environmental consulting firm. She later moved to the public sector, where she worked as an intern and a fellow (2019–2021) on sea level rise vulnerability assessments and climate action planning. A deep desire to tip power relations towards justice and sustainability led her back to postgraduate studies in 2022. Wanting to challenge herself with a different perspective she enrolled on the CST’s Postgraduate Diploma program and moved from California to Cape Town. The PGDip helped her construct a relational paradigm and social-ecological lens, which she uses in her MPhil to explore how environmental values and environmental rights are intertwined.