Dr. Pauline Destrée

Biography

Pauline Destrée is a lecturer in Business Ethics and Sustainability at King's Business School. Her research focuses on the social and political aspects of energy sustainability in West Africa, particularly through long-term ethnographic studies examining oil extraction, energy politics, and electricity access in Ghana. Pauline teaches undergraduate programs that cover Business Ethics & Sustainability, emphasizing critical areas such as climate change, environmental politics, energy justice, and corporate sustainability. She is an expert in energy transitions, decarbonization, and resource extraction. Her applied ethnography research has attracted funding from organizations such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the European Research Council, and the British Academy. Her work has been published in esteemed journals like Critique Anthropology and the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Additionally, Pauline serves as Secretary for the Energy Anthropology Network at the European Association of Social Anthropologists and is a leader in the EASA Apply Club Sustainability. She is affiliated with the Centre for Energy Ethics at the University of St Andrews and the Petrocultures Research Group. Before joining King's College, she was a lecturer in environmental anthropology and sustainability at Durham University and previously held a research fellowship at the University of St Andrews. Pauline holds a PhD in Anthropology from University College London and an MSc in Visual, Material & Museum Anthropology from the University of Oxford. She is currently accepting new PhD students based on her extensive research interests in the intersection of business, society, and the environment towards a sustainable future.

Research Interests