Cille Kaiser is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Governance group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. Trained in the liberal arts and sciences, she has an interdisciplinary background specializing in political science and environmental governance. Cille’s research interests centre on encounters between the policies and politics of decarbonization on the one hand, and socio-spatial conditions on the ground on the other.

Within the BACKLASH Project, she focuses on understanding and explaining why and how (de)carbon(ization) becomes subject to socio-political contention (e.g., boycotts, protests, strikes, and other socio-political struggles). Specifically, she is interested in understanding and explaining how socio-political problems are constituted throughout (de)carbon(ization) policy. To this end, her work centers on West Cumbria, United Kingdom, and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, where she takes a place-based approach to understanding the contentious policies and politics of decarbonization writ large.

Cille holds a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts & Sciences from Amsterdam University College and a Master of Science in Political Science from VU University Amsterdam, where she specialized in global environmental governance. She has also participated in an academic exchange with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she studied journalism and sociology. Prior to joining the BACKLASH project, Cille worked as a junior lecturer at the VU’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration.