Sterre Koops

Sterre is an external PhD from the Climate Adaptation research group at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Klimaatadaptatie | Hanze). She has completed a BSc Behavioural and Neuroscience, a BA Philosophy of the Cognitive Sciences, and a MSc Biology, all at the University of Groningen. In her current role as researcher on climate change adaptation, she has a strong interest in the social dimensions of climate change adaptation and community-based responses to environmental change. At the Hanze, she works on this topic through various projects (Sterre Koops - Hanze University of Applied Sciences). In 2024, she started her PhD, which focuses on how people imagine and relate to 'place' in a changing climate. She explores emplaced climate imaginaries and place attachment in regions experiencing environmental transformation. One region is the Arctic, specifically river communities in northern Norway, where climate change is increasingly transforming the environment, making seasonal rhythms less predictable and threatening long-held relationships with place. The other case study explores river communities in the north of Peru, where the El Niño Southern Oscillation has long driven environmental shifts, but where the impacts of those shifts have become more extreme and disruptive due to climate change. In her research, she will combine various methods, such as walking interviews, deep mapping, and participatory 'ClimateCafés' (Climate Café – Sharing climate adaptation), to understand how people envision and adapt to uncertain environmental futures.