BSc in Biological Sciences
MSc in Experimental and Applied Biology
MLitt in Islamic Studies
PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies
My interdisciplinary work integrates the anthropology of Islam and Islamic studies with environmental social sciences (especially, strands of environmental psychology that focus on pro-environmental values, self-identity and personal norms) and climate ethics. Specifically, I explore how Muslims (particularly, in the West) draw on ideas and practices grounded in the Islamic tradition to engage debates around the environmental and the climate—both in discourse and praxis.
Building on my significant experience of working with Muslim charities/educational institutions and mosques (>3 years in total), my work adopts a co-production approach that engages research participants/partners as ‘knowledge-holders’, rather than just ‘stakeholders’.
My current project (funded by ACCESS FlexFund Round 2) pursues a collaboration with the first and only ‘green mosque’ in the UK—Cambridge Central Mosque—to co-develop and evaluate a multicomponent, faith-literate environmental education intervention aimed at strengthening pro-environmental values, self-identity and personal norms among British Muslims.
My last project (funded by ACCESS FlexFund Round 1) explored various kinds of environmental action undertaken by British Muslim organisations of different types, through the medium of interview podcasts.
Other areas of my work include: Islamic theological/moral reasoning around environmental and climate issues; frame analysis of Muslim charities’ discourses
Living an ethical ‘Muslim lifestyle’ within and beyond neoliberal governmentalities: discourse and practice of a youth-led British Muslim charity. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09637494.2021.1995274. Religion, State and Society
Continuing intense malaria transmission in northern Uganda. https://www.ajtmh.org/view/journals/tpmd/84/5/article-p830.xml. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Green(ing) Muslims (podcast series I produced during my FlexFund 1 grant; 2024) https://www.youtube.com/@green-ing_Muslims
Green(ing) British Muslims (poster I produced during my FlexFund 1 grant; 2024) https://accessnetwork.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/DavideP_ACCESS-poster_FINAL.pdf
People of colour in ‘green spaces’: key barriers and the role of academia (blog I wrote during my time as a Research & Impact Fellow for the ‘RENEW- Renewing biodiversity through a people-in-nature approach’ project; 2023) https://renewbiodiversity.org.uk/people-of-colour-in-green-spaces-key-barriers-and-the-role-of-academia/
