Professor Katy Jenkins

Professor

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

Katy Jenkins is a Professor in Global Development. She is an interdisciplinary feminist scholar with specialisms in gender and development; women’s activism and volunteering; gender and large scale resource extraction; NGOs, professionalisation and the changing nature of civil society. She is committed to working in partnership with development NGOs, and grassroots and community organisations, with a particular focus on feminist and participatory approaches. Katy is currently PI on a BA/GCRF funded project, RECLAMA: Harnessing Afro-Ecuadorian Women's Heritage. Prior to this, her recently completed Leverhulme Fellowship developed an innovative participatory photography project on women’s anti-mining activism. Katy’s research has a particular focus on Latin America, and she has conducted extensive qualitative research in Peru, Ecuador and Chile. She speaks fluent Spanish. Katy is co-Director of the Centre for Global Development at Northumbria University.

Campus Address

Squires Building
City Campus
Newcastle
NE1 8ST

Email Katy

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

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.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Political Ecology, Gender, and the Environment in Latin America: An Introduction to the Field, Castillo, M., Jenkins, K. 10 Jan 2026, In: Latin American Perspectives
Visualizing Food Practices as Resistance in Women’s Anti-Extractive Activism in the Peruvian Andes, Jenkins, K. Jan 2026, In: Latin American Perspectives
Don't forget the snacks: Doing field research as a parent, Hope, J., Bastia, T., Cox, R., Jenkins, K., Lemanski, C., Mendo, T., Meth, P., Moeller, N., Okafor-Yarwood, I., O'Hare, P., Ray, C., Williams, G. 28 Jul 2025, The Routledge Handbook of Field Research, London, Taylor & Francis
Afro-Ecuadorian Women, Territory, and Natural Resource Extraction in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Boudewijn, I., Francis Bone, J., Jenkins, K., Zaragocin, S. 1 Oct 2024, In: Progress in Development Studies
Between hope and loss: Peruvian women activists’ visual contestations of extractive-led development, Jenkins, K. 1 Jan 2024, In: Progress in Development Studies
Care and the academy: Navigating fieldwork, funding and care responsibilities, Cox, R., Hope, J., Jenkins, K., Ray, C. Mar 2024, In: Area
New perspectives on development, Jenkins, K., Johnson, M., Munck, R. 1 May 2024, In: Global Discourse: An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs
New perspectives on development, Jenkins, K., Johnson, M., Munck, R. 5 Jun 2024
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. 1 May 2024, In: Global Discourse: An interdisciplinary journal of current affairs
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

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Participating in a conference, workshop, ...: Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2022

PGR Supervision

Alina Heuser Start Date: 17/03/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
Ana Avanco Start Date: 01/05/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
Aishath Green The role of women’s organisations in social dialogue for gender justtransitions in global food supply chains Start Date: 01/10/2025
Aishath Green The role of women’s organisations in social dialogue for gender just transitions in global food supply chains Start Date: 01/10/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
Ana Avanco Start Date: 01/05/2025
Alina Heuser Start Date: 17/03/2025 End Date: 12/03/2026