Elaine Williams

Dr Elaine Williams is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Geography. Her research is driven by a commitment to community engagement and social change, with a particular focus on sustainability education, active citizenship, and intergenerational learning. Her work explores how participatory and creative approaches can strengthen relationships between communities, universities, and the environment.

Elaine specialises in Participatory Action Research (PAR), conservation volunteering, and community-based wellbeing initiatives. She has extensive experience working collaboratively with communities, employing innovative and inclusive methods such as video walkabouts, photo elicitation, and the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM). Her research foregrounds the complexities and positionality of the researcher, recognising the nuanced, ‘messy’ realities of community-based research practice.

An Irish Research Council of Ireland PhD graduate, Elaine’s doctoral research examined human-nature relationships and developed applied strategies to support wellbeing enhancement, landscape conservation, and local participation in environmental stewardship. Her ongoing work seeks to build stronger community-university partnerships and promote cocreated knowledge through participatory research and practice.

Elaine has held a range of academic roles at the University of Galway over the past twelve years, including Lecturer, Post-Doctoral Researcher, Academic Placement Coordinator, Teaching Assistant, and Administrator. Beyond the university, she has worked as Community Engagement Officer with the Burrenbeo Trust and ChangeX Burren Coordinator with ChangeX, supporting communities in establishing environmental, sustainability, and wellbeing programmes.

• Principal Investigator for the project: ‘SEEDLING: Sustaining Environmental Education, Documenting Local Intergenerational Knowledge’, supported by the University of Galway’s CASSCS SRIS Fund.
• A team member InfraCARE, “Urban Infrastructures for Climate Action and REpair” project funded by the  ENLIGHT Thematic Networks initiative.  (2025).
• Teaching Council Advisor of the Leaving Certificate Subject ‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development’.
• Active reviewer for the Journal of Geography in Higher Education.
• Active member of the Geographical Society of Ireland and the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
• PAST: Assistant Business Manager for the journal Irish Geography (2014-2018).

Supervision:

• Undergraduate and postgraduate research on themes of community engagement, participatory research, sustainability education, and social–environmental wellbeing.

Research Interests:

Community engagement; sustainability education; active citizenship; intergenerational learning; participatory action research; environmental sustainability; wellbeing; social capital.

Research Interests

Elaine’s research focuses on community engagement and social change, with particular interests in sustainability education, active citizenship, and intergenerational learning. She specialises in Participatory Action Research (PAR) and employs creative, place-based methodologies (including video walkabouts, photo elicitation, and narrative approaches) to explore how communities coproduce knowledge, strengthen wellbeing, and foster environmental action.

As Principal Investigator of SEEDLING (Sustaining Environmental Education, Documenting Local Intergenerational Knowledge), Elaine leads an interdisciplinary study examining intergenerational, place-based environmental learning in a village in East Galway. The project investigates how collaboration between primary school pupils and older community members can enhance understandings of sustainability, food security and conservation, while also promoting social inclusion and rural resilience.

Elaine is also part of the InfraCARE (“Urban Infrastructures for Climate Action and REpair”) team at the University of Galway, contributing to work on urban climate justice and inclusive approaches to local climate action within the ENLIGHT Thematic Networks initiative.

Her Irish Research Council-funded PhD and subsequent involvement as Post Doctoral Researcher on the Horizon Europe (FLIARA) research reflect a sustained commitment to participatory and community-based scholarship, advancing meaningful partnerships between communities and universities and developing practical strategies for wellbeing, sustainability, and social inclusion.

Elaine’s teaching philosophy is grounded in empowering students to use their agency to bring about meaningful change. She aims not only to impart knowledge but also to inspire active citizenship, encouraging students to take responsibility for sustainability and climate action in their personal, professional, and everyday lives. Her teaching promotes critical reflection through real world examples, exploring both successes and failures in contemporary and historical contexts to deepen understanding of social, environmental, and political processes.

With over a decade of academic experience, Elaine has taught, mentored, and supervised students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has been at the forefront of module design and delivery, including preparing lectures, leading fieldtrips, developing assessments, and conducting marking and evaluation, informed by student feedback and reflective practice.

Undergraduate teaching:

• TI2112 Environmental Planning, Sustainability and Climate Action
• TI150 Principles of Human Geography
• BSS2101 Cooperative Learning: Fieldtrip Coordinator
• TI229 Political and Cultural Geography
• TI3127 Critical Geographies of Children, Young People and Families
• BSS3101 Work Placement for Social Scientists
• BSS3102 International Work Placement for Social Scientists
• BSS3103 Research Placement for Social Scientists
• TI254 Space, Place and the Irish Landscape
• TI252 Theory and Practice II
• TI251 Theory and Practice in Geography

Postgraduate teaching:

• TI6131 Introduction to Development
• TI6126 Critical Geopolitics and Security
• TI6128 Development and Justice
• TI6129 Field-Based Learning (International Fieldtrip to Bosnia)
• Academic Coordinator for the International Field-Based Learning programme (2013-2015).