Getova, Simona

Biography

Simona is a predoctoral researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) (GREDS-EMCONET profile). She is a feminist climate and social justice organiser currently pursuing a doctorate in the area of political ecology. Her research interests lie in the intersections of feminist political education, direct governance, community-led models of social and environmental justice, community-based adaptation and mitigation strategies, and building transnational power for systemic change.

Simona holds a BSc in Business Administration from the American College of Thessaloniki, Greece (2014), and an MSc in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM) from the Central European University (HU); University of the Aegean (GR); International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics in Lund (SWE); Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California (USA) (2016).

Her work thus far has revolved around environmental and social justice campaigning and advocacy, climate justice training and capacity building for civil society, organizing community resistance to mining, and policymaking in the field of climate change and energy in collaboration with civil society, the Energy Community, UNDP, the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning of North Macedonia.

She is currently involved in the development of national and Balkan-wide models for participatory decision-making through grassroot building of collective visions for a national and regional Green Deal.

Thesis

Simona’s research looks at the political, social, cultural circumstances under which integrated community models of socio-ecological justice in the post-Socialist Western Balkan countries have emerged. She is interested in how these findings could inform the construction of new narratives as alternatives to capitalism and scale up the just recovery and low-carbon transitions towards a fair and safe future for the region and beyond.

Simona is conducting her research with the supervision of Prof. Christos Zógrafos.