
Overview
Background
Professor Kristen Lyons is a public intellectual with over twenty years experience in research, teaching and service that delivers national and international impacts on issues that sit at the intersection of sustainability and development, as well as the future of higher education. Trained as a sociologist, Kristen is comfortable working in transdisciplinary teams to deliver socially just outcomes, including for some of the world's most vulnerable communities. Kristen works regularly in Uganda, Solomon Islands and Australia, and her work is grounded in a rights-based approach. In practice, this means centring the rights and interests of local communities, including Indigenous peoples, in her approach to research design, collaboration, and impacts and outcomes. Kristen is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Oakland Institute.
Availability
- Professor Kristen Lyons is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Science, Griffith University
- Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), Griffith University
- Doctor of Philosophy, Central Queensland University
Research interests
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Climate Change and Human Rights
Responses to climate change deliver significant impacts at the local level. I lead cross country research that examines the impacts of carbon trading initiatives - one response to climate change - for local communities.
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Transdisciplinary and Indigenous Rights
I am engaged in research that examines the social, legal and policy frameworks to support Australia to meet its Indigenous rights obligations, especially in the context of a climate changing world.
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Transforming Universities for the Public Good
Today’s university system is increasingly market driven, with institutional requirements that constrain options for public good research and learning. This system stands at odds with the primary and historical role of universities. Higher education movements – including free universities, progressive colleges and civic forums – offer important critical alternatives to this current system. I am engaged in research to analyse a selection of movements, delivering outcomes that will increase knowledge of how alliances and campaigns organise, what their change agenda entails, and how they are transforming universities for the public good.
Research impacts
My recognised role as public intellectual enhances my national and international academic, policy and industry impacts on issues related to the environment, development and human rights. Over the last five years I have led research teams to deliver socially just outcomes for some of the world's most vulnerable communities. For example, I have led research to identify human rights abuses that underpin international carbon offset projects in Uganda. The outcome of this has changed practices of one of the worlds largest plantation forestry and carbon offset companies, and shaped public debates related to global carbon trade projects. Collaborative research with Traditional Owners in Australia has also also delivered outcomes that have impacted public and policy understandings of Australia's indigenous rights obligations in the context of resource development.
To maximise research impact, I regularly work with funding bodies that support collaborative engagement with key partners, and build enduring relations between academic, industry and community groups.
In my role as advisor on a number of government advisory bodies, I have played a part in changing guidelines and policies related to emerging technologies. I was part of a team that provided recommendations to the Department of Industry Science and Resources to ensure Australia's compliance with international organic agriculture and food standards, with outcomes that ensure Australia maintains international market access.
I am committed to publishing broadly in non academic outlets, including in The Conversation (over 126,000 readers, and ranked #3 at UQ in 2018), ABC, New Matilda), and my research regularly features in international and national media.
Works
Search Professor Kristen Lyons’s works on UQ eSpace
1999
Journal Article
Alternative knowledges, organic agriculture, and the biotechnology debate
Lyons, Kristen and Lawrence, Geoffrey (1999). Alternative knowledges, organic agriculture, and the biotechnology debate. Culture and Agriculture, 21 (2), 1-12. doi: 10.1525/cag.1999.21.2.1
1999
Conference Publication
Greening, Agriculture and Change: Incorporation and Resistance
Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G. (1999). Greening, Agriculture and Change: Incorporation and Resistance. Farming for the future : organic produce for the 21st century, Mackay, QLD Australia, 22-23 September 1999. Mackay, QLD Australia: Central Queensland University.
1999
Journal Article
Europe's growing interest in organic food
Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G. (1999). Europe's growing interest in organic food. Nexus, 11 (3).
1999
Journal Article
Healthy for you, healthy for the environment: corporate capital, farming practice and the construction of 'Green' foods
Lawrence, Geoffrey, Lyons, Kristen and Lockie, Stewart (1999). Healthy for you, healthy for the environment: corporate capital, farming practice and the construction of 'Green' foods. Rural Society, 9 (3), 543-554. doi: 10.5172/rsj.9.3.543
1999
Conference Publication
Institutionalisation and resistance: organic agriculture in Australia and New Zealand
Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G. (1999). Institutionalisation and resistance: organic agriculture in Australia and New Zealand. XVIII Congress of the European Society for Rural Sociology, Lund, Sweden, 24-28 August 1999.
1999
Journal Article
Corporate environmentalism and the development of Australian organic agriculture
Lyons, Kristen (1999). Corporate environmentalism and the development of Australian organic agriculture. Rural Sociology, 64 (2), 1-12. doi: 10.1111/j.1549-0831.1999.tb00017.x
1998
Conference Publication
What do we mean by Green? Consumers, Agriculture and the Food Industry
Burch, D., Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G. (1998). What do we mean by Green? Consumers, Agriculture and the Food Industry. Annual Conference of the Australian Sociological Association, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 1-5 December 1998.
1998
Conference Publication
'Healthy for you: healthy for the environment': corporate capital, farming practice and the construction of 'green' foods
Lockie, S., Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G. (1998). 'Healthy for you: healthy for the environment': corporate capital, farming practice and the construction of 'green' foods. XIV World Congress of Sociology, Montreal, Canada, 26 July-1 August 1998.
1998
Book Chapter
Understanding organic farm practice: contributions from ecofeminism
Lyons, Kristen (1998). Understanding organic farm practice: contributions from ecofeminism. Australasian food and farming in a globalised economy: recent developments and future prospects. (pp. 45-67) edited by David Burch, Geoffrey Lawrence, Roy Rickson and Jasper Goss. Melbourne VIC, Australia: Dept. of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University.
1997
Conference Publication
Reconstruction of knowledges and the biotechnology debate: views from growers and grower representatives
Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G. (1997). Reconstruction of knowledges and the biotechnology debate: views from growers and grower representatives. Ecopolitics XI Conference, University of Melbourne, Melbourne , 4-5 October 1997.
1996
Book Chapter
'Agro-industrialization and rural restructuring: a case study of the Australian poultry industry'
Lyons, Kristen (1996). 'Agro-industrialization and rural restructuring: a case study of the Australian poultry industry'. Social change in rural Australia. (pp. 167-177) edited by Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons and Salim Momtaz. Rockhampton, Australia: Rural Social and Economic Research Centre.
1996
Book Chapter
Introduction
Lawrence, G., Lyons, K. and Momtaz, S. (1996). Introduction. Social change in rural Australia. (pp. 1-8) edited by Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons and Salim Momtaz. Rockhampton, QLD, Australia: Rural Social and Economic Research Centre.
1996
Book
Social Change in Rural Australia
Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons and Salim Momtaz eds. (1996). Social Change in Rural Australia. Central Queensland University, Rockhampton: University of Queensland Press ; Central Queensland University Press.
1995
Book Chapter
Agro-industrialization and social change within the Australian context: a case study of the fast food industry
Lyons, Kristen (1995). Agro-industrialization and social change within the Australian context: a case study of the fast food industry. Globalization and agri-food restructuring: perspectives from the Australasia region. (pp. 239-250) edited by David Burch, Roy RIckson and Geoffrey Lawrence. Aldershot: Avebury.
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Kristen Lyons is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Digital and Agricultural Innovation, and Alternative Agriculture Practices in Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kiah Smith
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Doctor Philosophy
Digital and Agricultural Innovation, and Alternative Agriculture Practices in Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kiah Smith
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Doctor Philosophy
Breaking the bias: delivering gender equality in conservation
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Hugh Possingham
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Doctor Philosophy
Political and Environmental Contributions of Agro-Forestry and Permaculture to Build Resilience to Climate Change
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sonia Roitman
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Doctor Philosophy
Postapocalyptic environmental practices: the narratives and political possibilities of the Dark Mountain Project
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Heloise Weber
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Doctor Philosophy
Gender, Conservation and Natural Resource Management in Solomon Islands
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Hugh Possingham
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Doctor Philosophy
Postapocalyptic environmental practices: the narratives and political possibilities of the Dark Mountain Project
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Heloise Weber
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Doctor Philosophy
Green extractivism, environmental justice and Indigenous Rights: The case of lithium mining in Chile
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Sally Babidge
Completed supervision
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
Digital and Agricultural Innovation, and Alternative Agriculture Practices in Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kiah Smith
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
Postapocalyptic environmental practices: the narratives and political possibilities of the Dark Mountain Project
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Heloise Weber
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Agrarian Transformation in Ghana's Brong Ahafo Region: Drivers and Outcomes
Principal Advisor
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2018
Master Philosophy
What is food in the food regime?: Remaking food and markets in a time of crisis
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence
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2018
Doctor Philosophy
Social impact assessment, social justice and scales of knowledge: exploring the emerging mining industry in Solomon Islands
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Simon Albert, Professor Karen McNamara
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
Food sovereignty: alternative policy for a sustainable national food system in Timor-Leste under climate change
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Walters
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2015
Doctor Philosophy
An Island of Success in a Sea of Failure? The MDGs and Sauri Millennium Village in Kenya
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Adjunct Professor Adil Khan
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Resonance of the land grabbing frame in Mali, West Africa: A social movements and political ecology perspective
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence
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2024
Master Philosophy
Assessment of Menstrual Health and Hygiene interventions in Rural Kenya
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Nina Lansbury
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
What's Cooking in Paradise? An ethnobotanical investigation of a transitioning food system in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands
Associate Advisor
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2014
Doctor Philosophy
Governance and Development Planning: A Case Study of Urban Low Cost Housing in Sarawak, Malaysia
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Adjunct Professor Adil Khan, Associate Professor Peter Walters
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2011
Doctor Philosophy
Contesting 'ethicality': Ethical trade, gender and sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers in Kenya
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lawrence
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Kristen Lyons directly for media enquiries about:
- carbon markets and human rights
- development and environment
- East Africa
- nanotechnology in food and agriculture
- privatised university
- Solomon Islands and logging
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