Dr Phalkey holds a PhD in Human Geography from the Queens University Belfast and joined the School as an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in October 2018. Prior to her doctoral degree programme, she worked as Senior Research Associate at the Center for Conservation Governance and Policy, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, (ATREE), Bangalore, India. She was earlier awarded an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM), University of Manchester, UK. Before that, she completed the Research Training Program (MPhil) of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (CSSSC), Kolkata, India and read for a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Mumbai, India.
Dr Phalkey has worked as a consultant with the WWF in India and conducted desk research on the Western Ghats which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She has also taught Sociology and Social Anthropology at A levels in India for which she developed material for teaching and was responsible for mentoring, assessing student projects and other learning activities. During her work as a Resource Person and Consultant in environmental education with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) India - Pune Division, she developed materials for and implemented instructional activities for young adults (14-18 years). She has preliminary experience in curriculum development, mapping and implementation for undergraduate students through her work with a short course on Science and Technology in India for the Central University Jharkhand, Ranchi, India.