Tania is a PhD candidate in Human Geography and Urban Studies (2024–2028).
She holds an MSc in Environmental Change and International Development (Distinction) from the University of Sheffield, where she used critical visual methods to examine the effects of rapid urban growth on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. Her doctoral thesis builds on this work by investigating urbanisation in Cancun, Mexico’s leading tourism destination, through participatory and multisensory approaches. In line with participatory action research (PAR), her work aims to foreground local perspectives and co-produce knowledge with residents, seeking to understand how communities experience the intersecting challenges of environmental change and rapid urbanisation in a city that is both environmentally fragile and economically dependent on international tourism for its existence.
She has conducted fieldwork on tourism security and perceptions of safety in Cancun, highlighting the divergence between residents’ and visitors’ experiences of violence and insecurity. These insights also inform her teaching of GY317: Geographies of Urban Violence, in which she draws on her Latin American experience to bring Global South perspectives into dialogue with debates often dominated by US and European frameworks.
Tania’s journey into participatory action research (PAR) began at InsightShare, where she cultivated a profound interest in participatory communication tools to challenge power hierarchies in research and promote social and environmental justice. She has also organised and facilitated workshops for UN agencies, universities, and research centres, advancing inclusive and creative methodologies that bridge community knowledge, academic research, and policy practice.
Provisional thesis title
"Sensing Paradise: Mapping Cancun's Multisensory Urban Fabric".
Supervisors
Dr Julia E Corwin and Prof Gareth A Jones
Research interests
- Socio-environmental impacts of rapid urbanisation
- Multisensory urbanism
- Decolonial approaches
Prizes/awards/scholarships/funding
- 2025: PG research support grant by the Society of Latin American Studies.
- 2024: Climate Leader Award by The Bloom.
- 2019: Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies from the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACyT).
- 2016-2019: Leader in Development Award by Santander Mexico, the Mexican Foundation for Education, Technology and Science (FUNED) and CONACyT.
Conference papers/working papers/publications: