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Dr Emma Colven PhD
Funding Research Analyst at Climate Finance Solutions; Professor of Global Environment and Geography at Kings College London
In my 8 years of teaching college courses, Cricket has been one of my most brilliant students. Cricket took several classes with me in her time at OU, including a demanding capstone course, for which she delivered a polished and sophisticated analysis of the 2021 ice storm that hit Texas using perspectives from political economy and political ecology. The paper demonstrated Cricket's command of research methods, epistemologies and ontologies, as well as her expertise in disaster studies and scholarship on energy justice.
Cricket is a highly talented writer and strong researcher, with an ability to weave theoretical concepts and empirical data into compelling analytical narratives. Her honors research on the politics of wind energy in OK was especially impressive. Cricket interviewed local residents in her hometown of Kingfisher, and conducted archival research at the local library, which required the laborious task of searching through microfilmed holdings over period of months to compose a 90 page document of relevant news articles for analysis.
Notably, Cricket's honors thesis was selected from 80 submissions for inclusion in the 2021-22 edition of The University of Oklahoma Honors Undergraduate Research Journal, which publishes 8 to 12 of "the best undergraduate research papers from the previous year written by Honors students, as determined by an editorial board of their peers."Cricket is also a talented designer and illustrator. She co-designed and executive a highly effective infographic as part of a group project for my Environmental Justice and Global Cities course. Impressed with Cricket's science communication skills, I have since asked her to prepare illustrations based on my research to help communicate my findings to the public.In addition to her communication, research, and writing skills, Cricket is an excellent colleague to her peers. Generous with her time, Cricket excels at giving constructive feedback and working with others.Cricket was a joy to have in my courses, and I appreciated her passion for energy, climate and immigration justice, which drove her work. Any company or institution would be lucky to have Cricket join their team.