Congratulations to Darwin PhD student Joycelyn Longdon on the forthcoming publication of her first book, Natural Connection: What indigenous wisdom & marginalised people teach us about environmental action.
Published by Penguin on 17th April, the book is an invitation to approach environmental action as a shared goal, bringing together global perspectives, practices and teachings.
Joycelyn is in the final year of a PhD in Computer Science, in which her research has focused on creating justice-led conservation technologies, conserving ecosystems through engagement with communities often excluded from conservation and technology research.
Between 2020 and early 2024, Joycelyn facilitated accessible climate conversations through her accessible, diverse and hopeful education platform, ClimateInColour. She was 2022’s winner of the Emerging Designer London Design Medal, was featured in British Vogue’s December 2023 ‘Forces for Change’ Issue and is a TEDx Alumna. Most recently, she has been listed as one of Pique Action and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE’s 2024 Climate Creators to Watch and as one of Country and Town House’s Future Icons Power People 2024.
“The book was a way to bring together work I’d been engaging with, from different community groups,” she says.
“It’s not about the technology aspect of my research, which is quite niche, although there is an entire chapter about technology and innovation. But it came out of the work I’d been doing beyond my PhD on environmental justice, and from talking to communities that live intimately with the natural world in various contexts.”
The book presents a diversity of perspectives on environmental action and its legacy, sharing case studies from all over the world, under the themes or ‘roots’ of rage, imagination, innovation, theory, healing and care.
“I wanted to move away from the idea that you’re either an activist all the time, or you don’t do anything,” says Joycelyn. “It’s something for people to return to, as they feel more or less connected to the different roots.”
Joycelyn will discuss Natural Connection at the Cambridge Literary Festival on Friday 25th April.
