Profile
Biography
Joshua Kirshner is an urban geographer and planning scholar with interests in the
geographies of low-carbon transition and implications for urban and environmental change. He has studied these questions in various sectors, working at international levels and with colleagues in several countries across the world. Before joining the University of York in 2015, he taught and held research positions at the Universities of Durham (UK), Rhodes and Johannesburg (South Africa).
Joshua currently leads a British Academy funded project, ‘Linking evidence on One
Health, biodiversity and climate justice for climate adaptation policy in the state of
São Paulo, Brazil.’ He was a member of CESET (Community Energy and the
Sustainable Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique), a collaborative UKRI funded project. He was PI in Electricity grid access histories and futures in Mozambique, funded by UK Aid/FCDO (co-led with Teesside University).
Through these and other projects, he is currently carrying out research on 1)
community-led off-grid solar initiatives and the role of community energy in the
transition to low-carbon economies; 2) new resource frontiers, urban change and
spaces of enclosure; 3) intersections of climate actions and sustainable transitions
across policy and practice, with a focus on uses of evidence in policies for equitable and climate resilient cities and regions. His earlier work has explored migration and social integration, regionalism and regional planning, and urban infrastructure histories (water, energy, transport).
Josh’s research and teaching combine textual, field-based and participatory
methods. Conceptually, he is interested in applying insights from urban political
ecology, political economy, innovations studies, STS, and critical urban studies in his research. His work has drawn attention to uneven development and urbanization in rapidly growing and resource-rich yet overlooked regions as diverse as Beira and Tete (Mozambique), Santa Cruz (lowland Bolivia), and Alagoas (northeast Brazil).
Most of his research has been supported through competitive grants, financed e.g.
by the ESRC, British Academy, Royal Society and the Fulbright Commission.
Josh is author of more than 30 scientific papers published in leading journals such as Environment and Planning, Geoforum, Climate Policy, and Nature Energy. He
serves on the editorial boards of Energy Research & Social Science (Impact Factor = 8.5), Urban Planning, and Revista de Estudios Urbanos y Territoriales. He has a PhD from Cornell University in City & Regional Planning, an MA from University of California, Los Angeles in Urban Planning, and a BA (magna cum laude) from Harvard University in Social Anthropology.
Joshua is a member of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British
Geographers (RGS-IBG) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG). He
has represented the University of York on the Worldwide Universities Network’s
Responding to Climate Change steering group. He regularly participates in research funding assessment panels, including for the ESRC (UK), NSF (US), NRF (South Africa), NWO (Netherlands), and the Austrian Partnership Program in Higher Education and Research for Development.
Impact and engagement
Regarding policy impact, Joshua has contributed to the CESET project’s Regional
Energy Learning Alliance, which fosters knowledge exchange and capacity
building to support community energy in southern Africa. This has included hosting a conference on territorial strategies for delivering off-grid energy, preparing policy briefings, and hosting a webinar series. The team also set up a Community Energy Lab in Maputo with local residents, researchers, local officials, and the social enterprise, SCENE, to co-design a micro-grid for sustainable energy supply that meets user's needs.
Joshua convened a two-day workshop, ‘Learning from Cyclone Idai: Response,
Recovery and Future Risk’ in York to explore post-disaster recovery in coastal
southern Africa, with participants from the national electricity provider and city
governments in Mozambique, along with researchers from University of York.
He contributed to a public exhibit, ‘Living with the Network: Experiences of
energy access in Maputo,’ for the BA Summer Showcase in London. The team
depicted everyday practices with household energy through an installation and
soundscape.
He has consulted on the Sheffield-based independent filmmaker Sean Lovell’s short animation on charcoal and cooking, ‘Life of a Cookstove,’ and a short
film, ‘Community Energy in Malawi: On the Ground Experiences.’
Career
| Lecturer |
Department of Environment and Geography
University of York |
| Research Associate |
Durham University
UK
|
| Lecturer |
Rhodes University
South Africa |
| Postdoctoral Fellow |
University of Johannesburg
South Africa |
PhD
City and Regional Planning |
Cornell University
USA |
MA
Urban Planning |
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),
USA |
BA
Social Anthropology |
Harvard University
USA |
Teaching
Undergraduate
I joined the University of York in 2015 for the launch of the Human Geography and
Environment BA degree program in the department. This has offered me the
opportunity to bring together the different disciplinary approaches I have worked
with (urban geography, urban and regional planning, development studies,
environmental social science) over the years into my teaching. I received the
department’s ‘Making the Difference’ award for my online redesign of an overseas
field-based course during the Covid pandemic in 2020. I gained nominations for
the ‘Teacher of the Year’ award by York University Students Union (YUSU) in
2019 and 2023.g
Currently I am the programme lead and admissions tutor for the Human Geography and Environment BA degree. I served as external examiner for the Environment and Development MSc program at the University of Cardiff’s School
of Geography and Planning. While in the department, I have developed and
contributed to several modules:
I convene the Year 2 module Megacities and Urbanisation, and I contribute to
several other modules, including Geographical Perspectives for Environmental
Issues, Equitable and Sustainable Futures, From Foundations to Innovations in
Human Geography Research, Energy Futures and Low Carbon Transitions, and
Introduction to Research Skills.
I have taught on the Sustainability Clinic, in which Year 3 students work together in
multidisciplinary groups to support community organizations, non-profits and SMEs to achieve their sustainability goals.
Beyond the classroom, I play an active role in supervising undergraduate, MSc and
PhD students on a wide range of topics in human geography and related fields.
Other teaching
At its heart, my approach to teaching involves encouraging students to build up their own critical views and understandings, and to ‘problematize’ the information they receive rather than amassing a collection of facts. I draw on ideas in research-based teaching, problem-based learning and non-directive pedagogies for inspiration. The fields of geography and urban studies and planning are highly engaged disciplines, offering students and scholars alike the opportunity to develop grounded and critical views of the world from early stages of study, rather than to merely acquire technical skills. Teaching in this area enables a focus not only on entrenched problems and deficiencies, but the prospect to consider and advocate for solutions for 21st Century challenges, including transforming towards more sustainable, equitable and regenerative futures.
The importance of varying cultural perspectives and viewpoints in shaping and creating knowledge is central to my teaching. Enhancing students’ own interpretation and questioning of readings, rather than their simple digestion, underpins my teaching philosophy. I strongly support the value of internationalization in teaching, and this ranges from welcoming students from abroad to drawing on alternative sources, including those from outside the English-speaking world.
I joined the University of York in 2015 for the launch of the Human Geography and Environment BA program in the department. Being involved in this endeavour has offered me the opportunity to bring together the different disciplinary approaches I have worked with (geography, planning, development studies, environmental humanities) into my teaching. During this period, I was nominated for YUSU Excellence Awards 2019 for ‘Teacher of the Year.’ The program is attracting an engaged and diverse group of students who have been a pleasure to work with. While in the department, I have developed and contributed to the following modules:
Undergraduate
1st year
Global Geographies (convener)
Qualitative Approaches to Social Science Research (contributor)
Introduction to Human Geography (contributor)
Frontiers in Sustainability Studies (contributor)
2nd year
Megacities & Urbanisation (convener)
Tenerife Field Course – Human Geography and Environment (convener)
Energy and the Environment (contributor)
Masters
Current Research in Human Geography & Environment (contributor)
Research
Overview
Joshua’s research interests converge around the geographies of low-carbon
transition and implications for urban and environmental change, particularly for
lower-income and marginalised groups. He also has strong interests in urban climate
responses, migration and social integration.
Projects
Joshua has supported and led multiple grant-funded projects on these topics with
interdisciplinary teams and external partners:
PI, ‘Linking evidence on One Health, biodiversity and climate justice for
climate adaptation policy in the state of São Paulo, Brazil,’ funded by the British Academy (2025-26), with the University of São Paulo.
Co-I, ‘Shifting shores: evidence for a gender-inclusive coastal resilience in
Thailand’ funded by the British Academy (2025-26), with Mahidol University,
Thailand Co-I, ‘Community Energy Systems and the Sustainable Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique (CESET),’ a UKRI-GCRF project (2021-2024),
which examines the potential of community energy to support inclusive and
sustainable energy transitions. The project focuses on diversity of community energy systems and explores community through the lens of intersectionality. Collaborators: Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Mekelle University (Ethiopia); Mzuzu University (Malawi); University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique); Universities of Oxford, Durham, Loughborough, Sheffield, UCL (all UK).
PI, ‘A Political-Economic Analysis of Electricity Grid Access Histories and
Futures in Mozambique’ (2019-2021), co-led with Teesside University and funded
by UK DfID/FCDO. Working with local partners, the research demonstrated how
energy access in Mozambique is shaped by the country’s pre-independence and
post-colonial histories.
Co-I, ‘Integrating Ecological and Cultural Histories to Inform Sustainable and
Equitable Futures for the Colombian Páramos,’ funded by NERC, AHRC and
Colombia Bio programme (2018-2021), with collaborators from Universidad de Los
Andes, Humboldt Institute and the Nature Conservancy (all Colombia), Cambridge
University (UK) and University of Florida (US).
Co-I, ‘Sustainable Energy Access in Mozambique: Socio-political factors in
conflict-laden urban areas,’ in collaboration with Vanesa Castán Broto (PI,
Sheffield) and Idalina Baptista (Co-I, Oxford), funded by the British Academy/GCRF
Sustainable Development Programme (2016-2018). Kirshner led the project’s work
package 2 on the political economy of the energy sector.
Co-I, STRIPES (‘Social Transformative Research Informing Processes of
Environmental Science’), a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers project that
examined innovation and the socio-environmental implications of advanced
bioethanol generation in Alagoas, in northeast Brazil. The project included an
interdisciplinary team spanning the social and natural sciences, with collaborators at the University of São Paulo.
Joshua has also contributed to a partnership between researchers at York and
University of Ghana to study the management of small-scale and artisanal mining,
exploring past, present and future socio-environmental impacts.
Supervision
Diana Infante-Vargas (with Politics and International Relations): Negotiating the
everyday city: women’s mobilities and public transportation in Saltillo, Mexico
Elizabeth Carper: An examination of farmers’ perceptions, social acceptance, and
the disruptive potential of agrivoltaics in northwest India Sani Matawalle: Energy geography of Nigeria: Governance, power and social exclusion Ariana Nayeli Escalante: Energy (In)Justice in México: An analysis of wind and solar energy projects in Yucatán
Dr Joshua Kirshner welcomes PhD applications in the following areas:
- Energy and development
- Low-carbon transition
- Commodity frontiers
- Urban political ecology
- Urban futures
