Helen Kopnina

Biography

Helen was born in Moscow, Soviet Union, and has immigrated to the US with her family when she was a teenager. After completing her high school and Bachelor study in the US, she has moved to Europe, and worked in South East Asia and many other countries.

After getting her PhD, Helen became a post-doctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, researching Chinese networks in small and medium enterprises in Singapore and Malaysia, in the period between 2002 and 2007. Her second post-doctoral research involved Human resource management policy at the University of Amsterdam.

At present, she is teaching full-time at both Leiden University (environmental anthropology), Leiden University College (environment and development) and at The Hague University of Applied Science (sustainable business), and does research in ‘free time’, trying to combine it with care for her three wonderful children.

Education

PhD Cambridge University 2002

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Helen specializes in environmental anthropology, environmental education,  conservation, and sustainable business.

Helen’s recent articles are based on research done ‘close to home’ – particularly on work with her own students (e.g. ‘If a Tree Falls and Everybody Hears the Sound: Teaching deep ecology to business students’ in Journal of Education for Sustainable Development); or (her own) children and their classmates (e.g. ‘Animal cards, supermarket stunts and World Wide Fund for Nature: Exploring the educational value of a business-ENGO partnership for sustainable consumption.’ Journal of Consumer Culture) or walks and talks near my house in Westerpark, Amsterdam (e.g. ‘Requiem for the weeds: Reflections in Amsterdam city park’ in Sustainable Cities and Society); or desk research on Dutch consumption patterns (e.g. ‘Consumption, waste and (un)sustainable development: Reflections on the Dutch holiday of Queen's Day’ in Environment, Systems and Decisions). Due to limitedof research time,

Also, see Helen’s blogs on

http://www.leidenanthropologyblog.nl/contributors/helen-kopnina
http://www.wrforum.org/publications/opinion/sustainability-circular-economy-business-subversion/
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/bio/kopnina/
https://leidenuniv.academia.edu/HelenKopnina
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Helen_Kopnina2

Video’s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oldnYTYMx-k

Personal Interests

Family, friends, rewilding the planet

Books

Photos