Prof Katy Jenkins

Katy’s research interests coalesce around two key thematic and overlapping areas – gender and development, specifically gender and large-scale resource extraction; and secondly, community volunteering and activism, with a focus on women’s community organising and volunteering. In relation to both of these areas, Katy’s research prioritises feminist, participatory and creative methodologies, including visual methods.

Gender and large-scale resource extraction

Katy’s research focuses on the gendered impacts and experiences of large-scale resource extraction, particularly mining, specifically in the Andean countries of Latin America. Katy is interested in understanding the ways in which women are impacted by, and respond to, the social, environmental and political impacts of large-scale mining, and in particular has published widely on women’s resistance and community activism in response to proposed and existing mining developments. Recent projects include research funded by a Leverhulme Trust Fellowship, undertaking a participatory photography project with women anti-mining activists in Cajamarca, Peru; and current British Academy/GCRF funded research with colleagues in Ecuador (USFQ and Mujeres de Asfalto), working with Afro-Ecuadorian women in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. This research engages peer researchers to collect Afro-Ecuadorian women’s life histories with the aim of celebrating Afro-Ecuadorian women’s heritage in the context of living with multiple types of large-scale resource extraction, marginalisation and violence.

Civil Society, NGOs and volunteering  

Katy’s previous research has critically analysed women’s long-term volunteering in Peru, making a critical contribution to debates around theorising professionalisation through ethnographic fieldwork with women health promoters in Lima, Peru. More recently, she is currently co-leading the VSO-funded project ‘Volunteering Together: Blending knowledge and skills for development’, seeking to understand how different types of volunteers working together can enhance the development outcomes of volunteering projects. This involves research across VSO’s projects in Uganda, Tanzania and Myanmar.

Methodologies

Katy has a long-standing interest in qualitative methodologies, and has published widely on using feminist and participatory approaches. Katy is committed to research in partnership with development NGOs and grassroots organisations. She speaks fluent Spanish and has conducted research with development organisations in Peru and Ecuador.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Between hope and loss: Peruvian women activists’ visual contestations of extractive-led development, Jenkins, K. 11 Jul 2023, In: Progress in Development Studies
• Gender, Large-scale Resource Extraction, and Environmental Inequality in Latin America, Boudewijn, I., Jenkins, K. 8 Jun 2023, Handbook of Inequality and the Environment, Edward Elgar
• Questioning development from Black feminisms in Ecuador and moving towards a Black feminist political ecology in the Americas, Zaragocin, S., Francis Bone, J., Boudewijn, I., Jenkins, K. 18 Sep 2023, In: Global Discourse: An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs
• Navigating the challenges of fieldwork and childcare: revisiting Muddy Glee, Bastia, T., Hope, J., Jenkins, K., Lemanski, C., Meth, P., Moeller, N., Williams, G. 1 Dec 2022, In: Area
• Decolonising Oral History: A Conversation, Francis, H., Boudewijn, I., Carcelén-Estrada, A., Francis Bone, J., Jenkins, K., Zaragocin, S. Mar 2021, In: History
• Descolonizando la historia oral: una conversación, Francis, H., Boudewijn, I., Carcelén-Estrada, A., Francis Bone, J., Jenkins, K., Zaragocin, S. Mar 2021, In: History
• Introduction: Articulating Gender and Resource Extraction in Latin America, Grieco, K., Jenkins, K. 1 Apr 2021, In: Bulletin of Latin American Research
• Academic motherhood and fieldwork: Juggling time, emotions and competing demands, Jenkins, K. 1 Sep 2020, In: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
• Negotiating access, ethics and agendas: Using participatory photography with women anti-mining activists in Peru, Jenkins, K., Boudewijn, I. Sep 2020, In: Women's Studies International Forum
• Reflections on a failed participatory workshop in Northern Chile: Negotiating boycotts, benefits, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, Jenkins, K., Romero Toledo, H., Videla Oyarzo, A. 1 Nov 2020, In: Emotion, Space and Society

• Tzu-Jung Feng Volunteering or professionalization? Rethinking the role identity of community volunteers, with a focus on the long-term remote community health volunteer’s everyday experience in Taiwan Start Date: 01/10/2023
• Inge Boudewijn Constructing the Mine: a critical exploration of women’s meaning-making regarding the Yanacocha mine, Peru Start Date: 07/10/2014 End Date: 16/09/2019
• Sophia Valle-Cornibert The patriarchal pact of large-scale mining: women’s activism against everyday machismo in the Province of El Loa, Chile. Start Date: 01/10/2019
• Floor Van Der Hout Women territory defenders’ activism in Bolivia: weaving resistance against extractivism through affective, careful and relational politics Start Date: 01/10/2018
• Laura Hutchinson Compromise and Contestation: Conceptualising Women's Rights Activists Everyday Responses to Professionalisation Start Date: 23/10/2013

• Teaching & Learning PCAPL October 11 2007
• Geography PhD September 01 2005
• Geography MA August 31 2002
• Hispanic Studies BA (Hons) August 31 1999
• Fellow (FHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2010