Claudia Rot
An avid environmental scientist from the Netherlands, Claudia Rot found her passion for environmental justice during her graduate studies at Parsons. She is currently a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning at Wageningen University.
Claudia Rot received a bachelor's degree in Environmental and Climate Sciences from Amsterdam University College where she focused on multi-species justice, working on habitat creation for pollinators in urban environments. Her passion to understand intricate urban issues motivated her to pursue graduate studies in the MS Design and Urban Ecologies program at Parsons School of Design. “The program provided me with an understanding of the need for clear and accessible communication when it comes to urban issues,” Claudia recalls. “Not only using clear language when working with communities but also using data visualizations and maps to distill multi-layered problems into more accessible tools.”
During her studies, Claudia became an environmental justice advocate. Her thesis project allowed her to combine her interests in environmental sciences and social justice. ”Environmental problems are often merely approached as technological challenges in the Netherlands, without taking their societal implications into account.” This drove her to return to her home country to challenge Dutch institutions, working with universities, governments, and local organizations, and providing them with a new lens to see the intersections of societal and environmental inequalities.
Today, Claudia is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Spatial Planning at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, where she teaches and researches using cartography, graphic design, linguistics, and community science as learning tools for environmental justice advocacy. Her Ph.D. research focuses on the demographic and spatial patterns of environmental injustice in the Netherlands. She also joined the Het Nieuwe Institute as a research fellow, where she is developing the project Beyond Polderen: Exposing the Voids of Environmental Justice in the Netherlands.