Dr Joanne Peers is a Researcher at the Origins Centre at The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She holds a PhD from The University of Oulu in Finland in Environmental Humanities and Education Research. Her dissertation focussed on relationality through thinking with bodies, water, time, memory and spirituality. Joanne won the Finnish Education Research Association PhD competition 2025 and is the recipient of Best PhD award for 2024 at Oulu University. She is the awardee of a seed grant in the Engaged Scholarship against Climate Change (ESCC) project at The Vrije University of Amsterdam. Joanne is the Lead Researcher in the Voices of the Sea project through the University of Witwatersrand, in partnership with the Origins Centre, Save our Seas Foundation Shark Education Centre and Western Cape Education Department. She has over twenty years experience in education in both early years and higher education. Her professional portfolio includes education strategy, curriculum innovation and relational mapping. Working hydropoetically as an artist, educator and researcher participating in relational ways allows Joanne to approach issues of care, ethics and environmental justice through transdisciplinary modalities.
