Dr Kate Smith

Qualifications

• BA (University of Sheffield)
• PhD / DPhil (University of Sheffield)

Summary

Kate gained her PhD at the former National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, within the School of English at the University of Sheffield. During her PhD research she taught at Sheffield and the Open University, as well as at Hull York Medical School, and coordinated modules in cultural and environmental anthropology in the department of Social Science and Criminology at Hull.

Her research interests span a wide range of interdisciplinary topics in cultural anthropology and sociohydrology, but centre around the interactions between water, people, landscape and identity, and in participatory methodologies and thematic analysis. Her work within the Energy and Environment Institute has included nationally significant research on using mobile technologies for flood warnings, using social value as a way of evaluating flood resilience innovation, and understanding the impact of large-scale public art interventions on people’s engagement with action for climate empowerment.

Her work in flood risk and resilience started in the Flood Innovation Centre, developing novel and creative ways to engage diverse publics with flood resilience and climate change adaptation. She combines research and KE with teaching on the Energy and Environment Institute’s MSc in Flood Risk Management. She is also a member of the Folklore Society's council, has been a judge for the Katherine Briggs book prize, and co-wrote the Society's ethics position statement.