Dr Rowan Jackson

Lecturer in Planetary Health and Food Systems

Biography

Background

Rowan Jackson joined GAAFS from the School of Geosciences in April 2023 and leads the MSc in Planetary Health in the Edinburgh Futures Institute. He previously directed the MScs in Sustainable Lands and Cities and Environmental Sustainability and has teaching experience across a wide range of topics ranging from sustainable development policy and practice to climate change adaptation and environmental history.

Rowan’s research uses environmental, historical, and archaeological records to understand how human societies have responded to environmental and climate stress. His research primarily focuses on social-ecological changes on recently colonised island environments in the North Atlantic since the Viking Age (c. 793 – 1066), with a particular focus on Greenland and Iceland in the High and Late Medieval Periods (c. 870 – 1500 AD). Using multiple datasets to reconstruct these deep-time records, his research also identifies the role of historical data for understanding environmental baselines and human vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in the present.

To highlight the importance of environmental and cultural histories and to conserve it for future generations, Rowan actively works to promote international collaborations to support the protection and conservation of physical and intangible cultural heritage. 

Postgraduate teaching

  • Introduction to Planetary Health (postgraduate)
  • Understanding Planetary Health Data (postgraduate)
  • Understanding Planetary Health & Data (postgraduate) 
  • Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Planetary Health (postgraduate)
  • Futures Project: Planetary Health (postgraduate) 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Current PhD students supervised

  • Sirimon Thomas (Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems)
  • Emily Topness (GeoSciences)
  • Doria De Souza Etchells (GeoSciences) 

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