ICTA-UAB Best Prizes awarded to female postdoctoral researchers 

The award recognises works carried out by a postdoctoral researcher or with a central gender focus or feminist epistemology.

The two prizes, awarded during the Summer Day 2026 celebration, recognised the Best Published Scientific Article and the Best PhD Thesis of 2025, both carried out by a postdoctoral female researcher or developed from a gender perspective or feminist epistemology. Two internal committees of researchers were responsible for evaluating the applications and selecting the awardees in each category.

Researcher Lucía Muñoz Sueiro was awarded the prize for Best PhD Thesis 2025.

Her thesis, entitled Tejiendo temporalidades: la cultura del esparto y su potencial postfigurativo para el decrecimiento, focuses on the impact of practices of postfigurative speculation within rural and non-activist communities in the context of socio-ecological crises.

The jury, composed of Fulvia Calcagni, Lewis Carl King and Michael Grelaud, highly valued the academic excellence and depth of her work in combining bodies of knowledge drawing on degrowth, political ecology, anthropology and history. It highlighted the rigorous and coherent entangling of conceptual frameworks, extensive archival research and multi-sited ethnography, which demonstrate Lucía Muñoz Sueiro’s high theoretical and methodological maturity. The jury also underscored her firm commitment to ethical research principles, paying particular attention to anonymity, authorship and restitution to the people involved.

The jury considers that the variety of publications (calls for papers, book chapters, scientific articles, etc.), theoretical frameworks and academic collaborations upon which the thesis is built demonstrate the strong impact of her research. In addition, it highlighted her brave decision to write the thesis as a monograph, challenging the imperative of publishing scientific articles for career development, which, in the jury’s view, makes her even more deserving of this award.

 

Amalia Calderón-Argelich was awarded the prize for Best Published Scientific Article in 2025 for her article entitled "Co-Mapping Vulnerability to Climate Gentrification in the Context of Heat: A Participatory Index at the Metropolitan Scale", published in the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy.

The jury, composed of Melissa Fernandez, Graham Mortyn and Eric Galbraith, highlighted the feminist research principles and practices embodied in the methods, approach and public-facing recommendations developed by Amalia Calderón-Argelich. It stated that the work combines quantitative and qualitative methods to produce a novel spatial vulnerability index capable of predicting climate gentrification and related displacement. Furthermore, it moves beyond a straightforward indexing of grey and green urban infrastructure to value the social characteristics of a neighbourhood through an intersectional feminist lens that is attentive to the lived realities of race and poverty.

The jury also noted that the index was constructed with extensive participation from public authority experts and community activists, resulting in a practical and useful tool that policymakers and metropolitan planners can use in their work.

Finally, as the evaluating committee, its members emphasised the importance of this prize in recognising and making visible the work of women scientists. “Unfortunately, the sciences are still affected by a history that has undervalued and underrepresented women’s contributions. We are proud that, through awards such as this one, ICTA-UAB is exposing this historic inequity and supporting efforts to build a more equitable academic environment.”

The jury remarked that all submissions demonstrated excellent research, with sophisticated methodologies and arguments, and are a testament to the high academic standards and scholarly contributions women are making in their respective fields and disciplines. Therefore, it congratulated all nominated authors on their outstanding achievement.