Dr Smriti Safaya
Research Associate
Profile
Biography
Smriti is a Research Associate on the CHILI project examining air quality in schools and their health effects on students, and the CAREERS2 project (part 2 of the CAREERS project), which addresses racial inequity in environmental sector careers in the UK. She is a recipient of a Royal Geographical Society Innovative Geography Teaching Grant, working with a UK teacher to co-create a Geo-environmental Citizen Science Toolkit for educators. As a co-lead for the British Council Springboard grant, Smriti also brings together researchers from the UK and France to examine how citizen science experiences can help foster nature connection. She is a member of Inclusive Citizen Science, SEI York’s citizen science research group, and the Healthy, Equitable, Liveable Places research group.
Prior to joining SEI as staff, Smriti was an SEI affiliated researcher and a Croucher Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow focusing on Environmental Citizen Science in Schools in the UK and Hong Kong. This research is an extension of her PhD in Education (University of York) which involved Hong Kong schools. Smriti has run immersive nature-based experiences for university staff and the public, around the beautiful York campus and the city, to highlight the value of multi-sensory experiential education, including co-organizing the York City Nature Challenge.
Contact details
Research
Projects
CHILI - Child and adolescent Health Impacts of Learning Indoor environments under net zero
Publications
Selected publications
Terenzini, J, Safaya, S and Falkenberg, LJ. (2023) Motivations and Barriers to Participation in Citizen Science: The Case Study of the Hong Kong Jellyfish Project. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 8(1): 51, pp. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.618
Safaya, S. (2022) It fuels our craft - co-creating learning through participatory action research with students. Forum magazine 50, p.10-11 https://www.york.ac.uk/staff/teaching/develop/forum/magazine/
Safaya, S. (2022) Pedagogy with purpose. BERA Research Intelligence 150.
Safaya, S., Rines, M.L., Leung, D.S.K., Pang, H.L.T., Yeung, Y., Gobbi, G., Asinas, C., Schaefer, E.A.; Yu, C.K.Y., Lamond, S., Juels, T., Chu, A., Fung, H.C., Chung, C.H.V., Chung, H.L.L., Yung, Z.S., Lun, H.H.M., Ng, C.Y.J. (2021). Listening to youth: how to close the knowledge-action gap in climate change education. School Science Review 103 (383).
Safaya, S., Dunlop, L. & West, S. (2021) Citizen Science for Chemists. Chemistry Review 30 (4).
Teaching
Postgraduate
Supervision of PhD (Education) and MSc (Data Science) students
Other teaching
Guest lectures for Department of Education undergraduate and masters courses
External activities
Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society Associate
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Editorial duties
Routes Journal Editorial Board