Petra Tschakert

Prof. Petra Tschakert is an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University's School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, within the Faculty of Humanities. She holds a MPhil from Karl Franzens Universitaet (Graz, Austria) and a PhD from the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on climate change adaptation, energy humanities, and transformative sustainability education, emphasizing justice and equity. She has served as Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC's Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C and contributed to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).

Her work spans over 30 years across Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, India, Nepal, Panama, and Western Australia, employing participatory methods to strengthen resilience. She leads the Energy Humanities Initiative and the Australia-India Research Collaboration project on heatwaves, addressing energy insecurity and health disparities. Notable roles include Co-Chair of Australia's National Strategy on Just Adaptation (2022) and Principal Investigator for an ARC Discovery Project on climate-related loss.

Teaching includes courses like 'Global Futures and Just Transformation' and 'Just Energy Transitions,' with a focus on participatory development and resilience. She has supervised over 40 students to completion, exploring topics like climate adaptation in Ghana and climate extremes in Pakistan. Awards include the Piers Sellers Award (2019) and recognition for teaching excellence.

• Key Projects: Energy Humanities Initiative, IPCC assessments, WA Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) network.
• Grants: ARC Discovery Project, WUN-funded projects on climate resilience and migration.
• Labs/Teams: Curtin's Institute for Energy Transition, Energy Humanities theme, and collaborations with IIT Delhi.