Sarah Strachan

Sarah is a transdisciplinary artist practitioner based in Cambridge, UK. Her interests lie in how our perception of being in, knowing and belonging to the world affects our ecological awareness and thinking. As a PhD researcher, she is exploring the role of socially situated art practice as public pedagogy in environmental justice.
She is also Senior Lecturer Practitioner based at the Global Sustainability Institute and in her education for sustainability research she has been working with stakeholders to understand skills needs and pedagogical approaches to bridging the green skills gap.

Email: [email protected]

ResearchGate

LinkedIn

Website

Background

Sarah is an award-winning artist, marketing professional (DipM, MCIM, Chartered Marketer), researcher and collaborator working at the intersection of contemporary art, education, health, and sustainability. With over 20 years' business and management experience in both the public and commercial sectors of the healthcare industry, Sarah embarked on a career pivot in 2017 to study Fine Art. Returning to higher education reignited her interest in ecology and sustainability education, an area she continues to work in directly and through her associated transdisciplinary research and creative art practice.

Research interests

• Education for sustainability
• Public pedagogy
• Sustainability/green skills
• Creative practice
• Environmental justice
• Sustainable futures.

Qualifications

• MA Fine Art, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University
• BA (Hons) Fine Art, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University
• CIM, Chartered Marketer, Chartered Institute of Marketing
• CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, Cambridge Marketing College
• BA (Hons) Geography, University of Sheffield, 1995

Memberships, editorial boards

• Chartered Marketer, Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Member, a-n The Artists Information Company

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

CAM-DTP ESRC award holder (2025)

Sarah has worked on a number of consultancy projects on green skills with local authorities, businesses and non-governmental organisations including:

• Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Local Resilience Forum
• Essex County Council
• Business in the Community

Selected recent publications

Brett, R., Vohmann, B., Strachan, S., and Tree, M., (2025). A Just Green Transition: Attitudes of School Pupils to Construction Careers. In ARCOM 2025 proceedings (pp. 287-296). Available at: https://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/e5795d699a651d009a0cbfaca48d2662.pdf

Strachan, S., (2024). ‘A drift in conversation: Across hierarchies and beyond boundaries’, JAWS: Journal of Arts Writing by Students, 9:1&2, pp. 83–98. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1386/jaws.

Chance, V., Strachan, S. and Zolghadr, A., 2024. Case Study: Collaborative Pedagogic Research as Bridge between PGT and PGR Programmes. Innovative Practice in Higher Education, 6(2).

Strachan, S. and Greig, A., (2024). Pedagogical approaches to the green skills gap. In EDULEARN24 Proceedings (pp. 9295-9304). IATED.

Strachan, S., Greig, A. and Jones, A. (2022) ‘Going Green Post COVID-19: Employer Perspectives on Skills Needs’, Local economy, 37(6), pp. 481–506. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/02690942231151638.

Vago, M.V. and Strachan, S., 2021. Reflexivity, methodologies and collaboration in art practice: Plough Through and The Air We Breathe. Innovative Practice in Higher Education.

Abdalwahab, N., Davenport, K., Stenton, S., and Strachan, S., (2019). The archive and the contested landscape. Intersecting stories. In: Greaves, R. and Velez, M. (eds) (2019) ROAR. Kingsbridge, Devon, England: art.earth.

Gammon, A., Legarreta, L., Paterson, G., Strachan, S. and Davies, J. (2016) ‘The Use of Consensus Techniques to Inform Health Technology Appraisals’, Value in health, 19(7), pp. A490–A490. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2016.09.828.

Conversations with Clay. Possibility Studies Network Conference, Cambridge, July 2024

Pedagogical Approaches to the Green Skills Gap. CIHE Pedagogical Research Conference, Cambridge, UK, July 2024

The Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity, CIHE Pedagogical Research Conference, Cambridge, UK, July 2024

Pedagogical Approaches to the Green Skills Gap. EDULearn Conference, Palma, Majorca, July 2024

Conversations with Clay. Seasonal School, Karlsruhe, Germany, May 2024

The Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity, GLADHE Conference, London, UK, September 2023

Recent presentations and conferences

Conversations with Clay. Possibility Studies Network Conference, Cambridge, July 2024

Pedagogical Approaches to the Green Skills Gap. CIHE Pedagogical Research Conference, Cambridge, UK, July 2024

The Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity, CIHE Pedagogical Research Conference, Cambridge, UK, July 2024

Pedagogical Approaches to the Green Skills Gap. EDULearn Conference, Palma, Majorca, July 2024

Conversations with Clay. Seasonal School, Karlsruhe, Germany, May 2024

The Anxiety of Interdisciplinarity, GLADHE Conference, London, UK, September 2023