Ahead of the EARTH Scholarships Impact Symposium in April 2026, resident blogger Jelena Sofronijevic introduces a series of posts from this year’s cohort.

The EARTH Scholarship Scheme is a distinctive international research mobility programme delivered through a partnership between the British Council Scotland and the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities (SGSAH). Designed in response to the global climate emergency and building on Scotland’s cultural and academic legacy following COP26, the programme supports international PhD students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to undertake research residencies in Scotland focused on environmental arts and humanities.

The EARTH Scholarships were established to expand how climate change is researched and understood. While scientific and technological innovation remain essential, the programme recognises that the arts and humanities play a critical role in shaping environmental awareness, ethics, storytelling, and public engagement. The scheme supports projects that:

• Explore cultural responses to environmental crisis.
• Examine historical and place-based environmental change.
• Investigate multispecies relations and ecological ethics.
• Connect creative practice with climate justice.
• Bridge academic research with community and policy engagement.

By embedding scholars within Scottish universities and cultural networks, the programme fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and strengthens long-term international partnerships. The EARTH Scholarships also provide funded research exchanges of up to three months in Scotland. Scholars are placed within thematic research clusters hosted across multiple Scottish universities. In 2025–2026, these clusters include:

• 1. Place, Time and Action – focusing on environmental history, heritage, and place-based climate action.
• 2. Making, Method and Multispecies – exploring creative practice, design research, and human–nonhuman relations.
• 3. Triple E: Economy, Ethics and Environment – addressing environmental justice, political ecology, and sustainable economies.

Each scholar is supported by Scottish academic mentors and connected to local cultural organisations, archives, landscapes, and communities relevant to their research.

The EARTH Scholarships are awarded to researchers working across disciplines and mediums, from across Europe, South Asia, Africa, and the Americas, contributing to shared environmental dialogues. Among those in the recent cohorts are:

• Dr. Emily Thompson (Brown University, USA) – An environmental historian researching water ecologies and the cultural histories of river systems. During her placement in Scotland, she examined archival and community narratives surrounding freshwater management and climate resilience.
• Dr. Sofia Lindström (Lund University, Sweden) – A design researcher whose project explores multispecies collaboration in sustainable design practices. Her work integrates artistic experimentation with ecological ethics.
• Maria Clara Santos (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) – A visual artist investigating how cultural institutions respond to climate adaptation. Her residency involved collaborative workshops with Scottish arts organisations to develop creative climate storytelling strategies.
• Dr. Ayesha Khan (Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan) – A scholar working on climate justice and postcolonial environmental thought, focusing on comparative Global South–Scotland perspectives.
• Dr. Thabo Mokoena (University of Cape Town, South Africa) – A researcher examining extractive economies, memory, and landscape through interdisciplinary humanities methods.

A defining feature of the EARTH Scholarships is its strong cohort model. Scholars do not work in isolation; instead, they participate in structured events that build intellectual exchange and long-term collaboration. Each year begins with an intensive in-person cohort gathering in Scotland, which includes: Research workshops and interdisciplinary seminars; field visits to environmentally significant sites; networking with Scottish PhD researchers and faculty; cultural engagement activities that contextualise research within Scotland’s landscapes and heritage Previous cohorts have visited cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee, as well as rural and heritage landscapes including Glencoe and Rannoch Moor. These visits encourage embodied and place-responsive research approaches.

Throughout their residency, scholars take part in additional training events hosted by partner institutions, including sessions on public engagement, interdisciplinary methods, and impact development. These workshops strengthen the scholars’ capacity to translate research into policy, creative outputs, and community-facing initiatives.

In April 2026, an EARTH Scholars Reunion in Glasgow will bring together participants from the 2023, 2024, and 2025 cohorts over a few days. On 22 April, in celebration of Earth Day, the EARTH Scholarships Impact Symposium will convene scholars, academic mentors, policymakers, and cultural leaders at the University of Glasgow.

The public event includes thematic panel discussions aligned with the three research clusters; scholar presentations and creative workshops; poster sessions and interdisciplinary dialogues; and networking opportunities across academia, government, and the cultural sector.

The EARTH Scholarship Scheme demonstrates how international collaboration can deepen and diversify climate research. By foregrounding cultural practice, ethical reflection, and historical insight, the programme enriches global responses to environmental crisis, and mapping future directions for arts- and humanities-led climate research.

As we approach April 2026, a series of posts on the SGSAH Blog will spotlight the scholars participating in the upcoming event, offering insight into their research journeys and the collaborative work that continues to grow from the EARTH network.

Jelena Sofronijevic (@empirelinespodcast) is a producer, curator, writer, and researcher, working at the intersections of cultural history, politics, and the arts. Their independent curatorial projects include exhibitions like Invasion Ecology (2024), SEEDLINGS: Diasporic Imaginaries (2025), and Can We Stop Killing Each Other? at the Sainsbury Centre (2025), and they produce EMPIRE LINES, a podcast which uncovers the unexpected flows of empires through art. Jelena is pursuing a practice-based PhD with Gray’s School of Art, curating exhibitions of Balkan and Yugoslavian/diasporic artists in British art collections.