Maria Cifre Sabater 

Maria Cifre-Sabater holds a PhD in Environmental Anthropology from the University of Kent (UK, 2020), where she completed her doctoral thesis, Changing forests in a changing Mediterranean island: forests, fires and heritagisation of the landscape in Serra de Tramuntana, Mallorca, funded by the 50th Anniversary Scholarship. She holds a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and is currently a Senior Researcher in the CareNet research group at the Centre for Research on Social and Cultural Transformations (TRÀNSIC), Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

Her research explores the relationships between societies and their environments, initially focusing on wildfires, the transformation of cultural landscapes, and the social impacts of protected natural areas. Alongside her academic research, she has undertaken applied research and consultancy projects on topics including wildfire prevention at the wildland–urban interface, community-based forest management, landscape conservation and heritagisation, and circular economy networks in rural areas. As part of this work, she co-authored the Guide to Wildfire Prevention in the Balearic Islands.

Since joining UOC, she has expanded her research to explore the social dimensions of risks and disasters, addressing social vulnerability (WUICOM-BCN project), education for wildfire prevention and preparedness (EduFire Toolkit project), and participatory governance and community engagement in wildfire preparedness (FIREPRIME project).

Her current work explores how social inequalities shape the experiences and capacities of individuals and communities to face risks and disasters, as well as the dialogue between the knowledge and experiences of exposed populations and those of the institutions responsible for managing these risks. Within the European RESIST project, she applies this perspective to climate change adaptation, contributing to the development of participatory and inclusive strategies addressing floods, extreme heat, and wildfires.

She has experience teaching university-level undergraduate and postgraduate seminars, participates in international scientific conferences and meetings, and contributes to knowledge dissemination beyond academia.