Teresa Perez
Expertise: Inequality and social exclusion, Social change, Stigma and marginalisation, Development, Urban ethnography, Qualitative research methods, Critical discourse analysis.
Teresa joined the ACDI in 2017 as a research fellow working on the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project. She is currently conducting a comparative analysis of the experience of stakeholders who took part in participatory planning processes across Africa and South Asia. Broadly, her research field is global sociology. She takes an inter-disciplinary approach by integrating methods and knowledge from anthropology, social psychology and human geography. Her expertise in is the study of social problems from the perspective individuals in their everyday interactions. She is an early career researcher who enjoys working in mutli-disciplinary teams who share her interest in conducting policy relevant research that informs the work of non-academic groups. Her research is underpinned by a concern to debunk stereotypes, improve people’s quality of life and broaden opportunities for individual and social change.
Teresa is from Brighton in the UK. After completing her Social Sciences BA and PGCE at Manchester Metropolitan University, she worked in secondary education for nine years. In 2011 she took a career break and moved to South Africa to complete her postgraduate studies at the department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. She received her MA in 2013. Her dissertation examined how dominant ways of thinking about development helped and hindered people facilitating workshops in Delft, Cape Town. In 2017 she received her PhD. Her thesis uncovered the ways that street waste pickers managed their stigmatised identity while working as informal waste minimisation workers. During her studies she worked part time at the Centre for Higher Education Development, The knowledge Co-op, The Labour and Enterprise Research Group and taught in several BA Sociology courses. She has been involved in a diverse range of research projects in fields of higher education development, engaged scholarship and decent work as part of the 2030 agenda.