The Team

Sofia Castelo, PhD, is a climate adaptation practitioner, landscape architect, and researcher with over 20 years of global experience designing and implementing projects. Her work focuses on climate adaptation, nature-based solutions, and the disproportionate impacts of climate change on women and girls. She led the design and execution of the Nature-based Climate Adaptation Program for the Urban Areas of Penang Island, which received the Climathon Global Cities Award 2020 from Climate-KIC and the KSAAEM Award 2022 from ICESCO, recognizing its innovation and impact in advancing urban climate resilience.

Md. Ashrafuzzaman, PhD, is Professor and Chairman of Anthropology at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, with extensive academic and research experience in climate and social systems. He recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Lund University, Sweden, further strengthening his international research profile. He holds a joint PhD in Climate Change and Sustainable Development Policies from the University of Lisbon and the New University of Lisbon, Portugal, a collaborative program also involving the University of East Anglia, UK, and the University of Valencia, Spain, reflecting his strong interdisciplinary and global academic training.

Lia Antunes, PhD, (b. 1988, Portugal) is an architect and researcher. She holds a PhD from DARQ-University of Coimbra on "Women in the SAAL Process (1974-1976): Women architects, technicians and residents for the right to housing" (2025). She has been researching the history of women in Architecture, the right to housing and the city, and the climate crisis from an ecofeminist perspective. As part of the Women in Architecture Association, of which she is a co-founder, she organized and lectured in the short course "Earth as Home: Ecofeminism and Space" (2022-2023), an independent project of the Lisbon Architecture Triennial 2022 (DGArtes and CIG), which explored the connection between the climate crisis and gender. As an architect, she has designed museums and exhibitions. She was part of the team led by the museographer Elisabet Carceller, who won the Museum of the Year 2022 award from Acesso Cultura with the project Covilhã Museum. In 2024, Lia won the MAXQDA #ResearchForChange grant on Women Empowerment. She is a member of the Coro Viés choir.

Shama Rahma, PhD, is a London-based scientist, artist, performer, creative technologist, and futurist with Bangladeshi ancestry. Her multidisciplinary practice has led her to be the Artistic Director of Jugular Productions, an art/science creative production agency producing interdisciplinary shows, salons, installations, immersive experiences, and games. Bringing together this extensive knowledge, she founded NeuroCreate – using AI and neuroscience in a symbiotic digital design to enhance human creativity, performance, and wellbeing. She was selected in 2019 as one of the top 20 Most Inspiring Women in Tech and won The Creative Visionary Award 2024 from AthenaFundX.

Kenneth Feinstein, PhD, is a media artist, theorist, and academic working on issues regarding our ethical relationship to Otherness and how technology plays a role in it. His work has been exhibited and won prizes at major film festivals such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Oaxaca Film Festival. He has taught media arts, theory, and experimental film at Parsons School of Design, the MFA Computer Arts program at the School of Visual Arts, NYC, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Sunway University in Malaysia. Currently, Ken is an Associate Professor with the University of Leeds, UK. He has authored over 25 articles and chapters on media arts and media theory and one monograph, The Image That Doesn't Want to Be Seen. Most recently, he has centred his work on questions regarding Otherness and testimony in multiscreen documentary film installations.

Syeda Maliha Huq is a Bangladeshi media professional and documentarian. She holds an MA in Visual Communication and Media Studies from Sunway University, Malaysia, and a BA (Hons) in Communication specializing in Corporate Communication from the same university. Maliha managed a team in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic conducting interviews and filming for data collection, and managed a team in Malaysia for final editing and sound design to complete the research. She interned with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus at Yunus Centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2018 to March 2018. Maliha is working as a Digital Marketing Officer at Ascent Group in Bangladesh, with both international and Bangladeshi clients, planning and strategizing campaigns for various causes. She is passionate about working on Sustainable Development Goals and contributing to Bangladesh's development, focused on empowering the underprivileged and protecting the environment by educating people through various creative campaigns.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is El Collective?

El Collective is multidisciplinary team focusing on integrating arts and scientific research to document the disporpotionate impact of climate change on women and girls in the Global South.

What is Echoes of Loss?

How can I support this project?

Who are the women involved?

What is the project's goal?

You can support by sharing our work and raising awareness about climate change and its effects on women.

The project involves research and the documentation of the voices of women survivors from Bangladesh, sharing their experiences and stories through various media forms.

The goal is to develop scientific research along side the documentation and amplification of the voices of women affected by climate change through media art, fostering understanding and action.

The project collects testimonials from women survivors of climate disasters, highlighting their resilience and challenges.