Caris Paynter

MPhil Sustainable Development


25679805@sun.ac.za

Supervisors: Prof. Rika Preiser

Field of research

• Socio-ecological ethics

• Eco-spirituality

• Transgressing research

Profile

Caris is an MPhil Sustainable Development student. Her thesis seeks to inquire into how the healing of our inner feminine principle may alter the ways we relate to earth and community. Her research focuses specifically on a group of women from the Drawsrivier Valley, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

After she matriculated, Caris took some time off to backpack through India and learn from eastern philosophy, including achieving her 200hr yoga teacher training qualification. This experience, along with her BSocSci background in psychology, organizational psychology, and environmental science, has left Caris with a deep curiosity about the way our internal worlds manifest outwardly and produce/influence the social, economic, and ecological systems in which we are embedded. This has played a large role in Caris’s Masters Research focus.

Outside of academia, Caris spends her time head-hunting for an executive search firm based in the US, and teaching yoga. Her hobbies include art, movement, poetry, and swimming in the ocean.