Team

I am Antje Disterheft and I am enthusiastic about exploring transformative processes that can support keeping human-nature systems in balance.
I like the lens of care when thinking about sustainability. The idea of the CareLab is a fruit of my personal transformative learning process during my PhD.
I completed my PhD in the field of (social) sustainability, having conducted research on sustainability in higher education and how to assess participatory processes when universities start engaging with all forms of change that can reduce the ecological footprint, increase justice and promote well-being for all. I am trained in diverse methods for participatory leadership and project management design, applying now my facilitation skills in diverse group settings.
My current postdoctoral research is about narratives of transformation in science-society interfaces, focusing on capacity building and new approaches to collaboration and co-creation.

I am Salomé Areias and an activist passionate about fashion consumer behaviour. I studied fashion design and fashion sociology between Lisbon and Buenos Aires and soon became aware of how such a toxic industry was built over human psychological vulnerabilities such as consumption addiction, body shaming, or pursuit for status and social belonging. As the founder of the Fashion Revolution Portugal in 2014, I have been raising awareness about transparency within supply chains as a solution for social and climate justice. Recent findings on psychoanalysis and mindfulness inspired me to pursue a PhD at CENSE on how oneness beliefs impact fashion consumption. I was granted an FCT scholarship under the PhD program in Environment and Sustainability at NOVA School of Science and Technology. Under the supervision of The CareLab founder Antje Disterheft, this investigation explores the potential of inner-transformation as a driver for systemic change within the fashion industry, through participatory workshops and surveys.

I am Carolina Mello, a biologist and in love with my profession which I consider a mission of life. I feel that I became more sensitive during this path of learning in and with nature. I have been working with environmental education for nature’s conservation and this made me also understand life through the lenses of deep ecology, that see every living being as part of the system.
I am now doing my PhD ion Environmental and Sustainability at NOVA School of Science and Technology, supervised by Antje Disterheft and conducting my research in the direction of sustainable wellbeing in higher education institutions. 
Guided by the main question “How to integrate holistic learning approaches and nature-based solutions into higher education institutions”, my research aims to rethink HEI structures and foster holistic forms of teaching and learning that can help increase personal and planetary wellbeing. 

I am Giulia Sonetti and my work within transdisciplinary projects and transformative learning spans the past ten years and has been located in all over the world, but especially around EU funded projects non sustainability transitions. I love co-creating contexts for transformational learning experiences in the service of systemic change both in formal and informal academic settings. An architect and renewable energy MSc by training, my work after the PhD in quantitative environmental evaluation integrates systems thinking, participative action research, contemplative practices, community engagement. My present research and teaching focuses on evolving our understanding of the social field as a key leverage point for transformative change, as well as examining the theoretical foundations and practices linked to sustainability education from an epistemological pluralism lens, for decolonising the current narratives about human-nature relationships.