Co-producing pride in nature: supporting land-owners and managers to achieve LGBTQ+ inclusivity
Overview
Engagement with nature supports health and wellbeing, but Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ+) people experience inequalities in access to and safe enjoyment of natural spaces. By facilitating knowledge exchange between the LGBTQ+ community and land managers, Co-Producing Pride in Nature (Nov 2024 – July 2025) aims to support inclusive nature engagement, enable development of an interdisciplinary research agenda relevant to non-academic priorities, and facilitate professional development of students and non-academic practitioners.
Aims and objectives
This project aims to address (providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible green and public spaces) by supporting inclusive access to nature for LGBTQ+ people. To do this, we will undertake three strands of knowledge exchange between the LGBTQ+ community and land-owners/managers:
- Public engagement: an arts-based programme for LGBTQ+ people to express their experiences of nature in Surrey.
- Network-building: roundtable meetings with LGBTQ+ community and land-stewardship organisations.
- Research methods training and placements: for Â鶹ÊÓƵ students and staff from LGBTQ+ and land stewardship organisations.
In facilitating this knowledge exchange, the project aims to deliver:
- A co-produced framework that explains LGBTQ+ experiences of local nature and explores drivers/barriers to inclusivity in land stewardship.
- An action plan to support inclusivity practices in land stewardship.
- A publication of LGBTQ+ participants’ artworks exploring their ‘Pride in Nature’.
Funder: UKRI Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)
Collaborators: and
Advisory Group: , , , and
Related sustainable development goals
Team
Principal Investigator
Dr Eleanor Ratcliffe
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Psychology
Biography
My research mainly concerns restorative environments, or places which help people to recover psychologically from stress and/or cognitive fatigue. I focus particularly on sensory aspects of these environments (e.g., sounds and soundscapes) and on how bonds between people and place can enhance links between environment and wellbeing. I completed my PhD at Surrey in 2015, followed by two periods of postdoctoral research (2015-2017 at Tampere University, Finland, and 2017-2018 at Imperial College London), before returning to Surrey in January 2019.
Dr Fabio Fasoli
Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology
Biography
I received my PhD in 2011 from the University of Trento (Italy). After that, I held postdoctoral fellowships at CITEC/University of Bielefeld, the University of Padua, ISCTE-IUL, and the University of Milano-Bicocca. In October 2016, I joined the Â鶹ÊÓƵ as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow and have been here ever since. I am the Programme Leader for the Social Psychology MSc, the co-director of the Sex, Gender, and Sexualities Research Centre, and the current Chair of the University Rainbow Network. I am also the Secretary of the (IALSP)
Dr Anna Bornioli
Senior Future Fellow
Biography
I am a social scientist interested in behaviours and health and wellbeing outcomes related to healthy and liveable cities and sustainable mobility.
​I have just started my Senior Future Fellowship at the Environmental Psychology Research Group, Â鶹ÊÓƵ, investigating how urban environments can support psychological wellbeing and be gender inclusive. I am an Associate Member of the Institute for Sustainability.
I received my PhD in Transport Geography from the University of the West of England in 2018. I have previously worked at the Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing (University of the West of England) and the Erasmus Centre for Urban, Port and Transport Economics (Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Emily MacDonald
Research Assistant
Research groups and centres
Our research is supported by research groups and centres of excellence.