Dr Rihab Khalid is an interdisciplinary researcher in sustainable energy consumption and equitable development, focusing on socio-technical approaches to societal transitions. In particular, she is interested in the nexus of gender, energy infrastructure and space use in the Global South, working at the intersection of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 (gender equity), SDG7 (access to modern energy) and SDG11 (Sustainable growth in cities). Rihab has been the recipient of several research grants and awards and has worked on numerous collaborative research projects with international organisations including LUMS, HRC-UMT Lahore, UET Peshawar, Women in Energy Pakistan, GSI-ARU, Aalborg University, UKERC and BEIS UK. Her work has been published in various international peer-reviewed journals including Energy Research and Social Science, Building and Environment, Building Research and Information, Energy Efficiency, Energy for Sustainable Development, World Development, and Buildings and Cities.

Rihab completed her PhD in Architecture at the University of Cambridge in 2020 as a Cambridge Trust Scholar. Her thesis “Socio-material constructs of domestic energy demand: Household and housing practices in Pakistan” addresses the gap in socio-technical studies of domestic energy-use in the Global South. Her study identifies various nexuses of practices and spatial arrangements of urban housing that have emerged, persisted, and transformed over time, giving rise to unsustainable levels of electricity consumption in middleclass housing in Lahore, Pakistan. She used a mixed-methods approach, combining practice theories with the knowledge of spatial agency in design to explore sustainability interventions in house design and use, with implications for housing and energy policy.

Rihab is currently employed as the Isaac Newton Trust Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. She is committed to problem-driven research to tackle societal challenges, and to improve energy efficiency and sufficiency to meet climate change targets.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rihab-khalid-ph-d-8bb989131/

Twitter: @rihab_khalid