Natalia Efremova

Where Waste Goes — The Political Economy of Informal Disposal is an interdisciplinary PhD project at Queen Mary University of London, within the Leverhulme Living with Waste Doctoral Programme and Queen Mary Business School. The research investigates informal waste disposal and environmental inequality by bringing together machine learning, artificial intelligence, satellite imagery, development economics, and political economy. The doctoral researcher will explore how remote sensing and AI can identify and monitor informal waste sites, then combine these observations with socioeconomic, institutional, and policy data. The project is designed to examine both the drivers and consequences of waste disposal, with a particular focus on environmental justice. It offers an opportunity to work across data science, environmental science, geography, economics, development studies, and related fields in an interdisciplinary research environment. The supervisory team comprises Dr Caterina Gennaioli, lead supervisor, and Dr Natalia Efremova, co-supervisor, at Queen Mary Business School, together with Dr Gaia Narciso, co-supervisor, at Trinity College Dublin. The opportunity is a four-year PhD studentship in the Leverhulme Living with Waste Doctoral Programme.