2022–2026 Kerry Chance is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow (2022–2026), based at the Université de Paris (The Sorbonne). The fellowship supports research on climate change, air pollution, and inequality in urban environments.
Project Overview
The fellowship project examines how air pollution is experienced, measured, and governed across different urban and transnational contexts. It focuses on the relationship between environmental conditions, energy systems, and social inequality.
The Habitable Air Project brings together qualitative ethnographic research, environmental monitoring, and policy engagement to analyse how air is measured, experienced, and governed across interconnected energy hubs in South Africa and the United States.
Societal Relevance
The project addresses key challenges aligned with European and global priorities on climate action, environmental justice, and sustainable urban development.
It contributes to research linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), and has produced policy briefs presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum.
Research Objectives
- To analyse community-level experiences of air pollution across energy hubs in South Africa and the United States
- To develop qualitative and interdisciplinary approaches to environmental monitoring
- To examine the links between energy infrastructures, governance, and social inequality
- To contribute to global climate research by foregrounding the social dimensions of environmental data
- To produce policy-relevant outputs in collaboration with United Nations initiatives
Fellowship Outputs
Habitable Air: Urban Inequality in the Time of Climate Change — edited volume, in press 2026
Peer-reviewed articles on air pollution, petrochemical infrastructure, and climate inequality in South Africa
UN High-Level Political Forum policy briefs on community-level air quality monitoring and climate inequality, 2025
Institutional Collaborations
Funded by the European Commission
This project has received funding from the European Commission's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions — Horizon Europe