OSE Conference 2025 – University of Essex

Wendy Bryant is an Honorary Professor at the University of Essex and has recently published a book on her innovative rest-do days approach, which is informed by the concept of occupational balance. The approach is based on her personal experience of living with chronic illness, as well as her professional experiences as an occupational scientist and therapist. Wendy is also known for her research relating to mental health day services and occupational alienation. Wendy will be talking to our Transformation through participation theme.

Lisette Farias Vera is an Assistant Professor and Docent at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Occupational Science. Her doctoral thesis critically examines the epistemological foundations and discourses shaping occupation-based scholarship. In recent years, her research has focused on health promotion related to socioeconomic status and equity, using critical health qualitative inquiry. She teaches occupational science at the undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral levels, integrating critical reflexivity, anti-racist, and decolonisation perspectives. Lisette will be talking to our Decolonising occupational science theme.

Susan Buckingham is a writer, researcher, consultant, campaigner, and activist, and she also edits the Routledge book series on Gender and Environments. Susan’s work develops the understanding of links between gender and environment and applies this to different contexts. Most recently this has been in the UN Decade for Ocean Sustainability and through consultancies with the European Commission, including the European Institute for Gender Equality. She has edited and written extensively and is currently writing a book on Ecofeminism. She has co-edited ‘Feminist Climate Leadership’ which is currently in press. As an activist-academic, Susan worked with women’s organisations, and was a trustee and collaborator with Women’s Environmental Network from 2000-2012. Susan co-founded Friends of the Cam in 2020 which campaigns against destructive, masculinist planning and water pollution practices which are destroying the chalk streams of South East England. She is also an activist in climate and social justice campaigns. Susan will be talking to our Sustainable environments for all theme.

Mya-Rose Craig is a 22-year-old British-Bangladeshi birder, race activist and environmentalist campaigning for equal access to nature, to stop biodiversity loss and climate change, and to ensure global climate justice, all of which she believes are closely interlinked. In June 2022 Mya-Rose’s book Birdgirl was published by Vintage Books and has recently been nominated for the Jhalak Prize. In it she shares the impact on her own mental health of growing up with a mother affected by severe bipolar disorder, how nature helped them cope as a family, and how she found joy and her voice through birding. Her first book, We Have a Dream, highlights 30 young global environmentalists of colour and was nominated in the British Book Awards 2022 and her children’s book Flight was published in June by Puffin. When Mya-Rose was 11, she started her popular Birdgirl blog and at age 14 she launched the charity Black2Nature, which focuses on engaging Visible Minority Ethnic communities with nature. At age 17, she became the youngest person to see half the world’s bird species, and also to receive an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Bristol in recognition of her pioneering campaigning work. In February 2020 she shared a stage with Greta Thunberg in front of 40,000 protestors and in September of that year she travelled to the Arctic with Greenpeace, for whom she is an Oceans Ambassador, and took part in the most northerly Youth Strike for Climate. In November 2021 she spoke at COP26 on a panel with Emma Watson, Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai. The other causes closest to her heart are connecting people to nature so that they can care about fighting to avert the climate crisis. She campaigns against palm oil and plastic pollution, and she fights for the prioritisation of the human rights of indigenous peoples as a Survival International Ambassador. Her activism is informed by a life-long love of birds and the fight against racism. She writes articles and delivers speeches and talks as well as appearing on TV and in the media. Mya-Rose is also an Oxfam, Greenpeace and The Wildlife Trusts Ambassador. Mya-Rose will be talking to our Negotiating social citizenship, rights, and responsibilities theme.