The Burntwood Lecture: Dr Gemma Harper OBE, What Kind of Creature Loves Nature?

What Kind of Creature Loves Nature?

A fox looks back.

For a moment, something shifts. The familiar boundary between human observer and wild animal feels less certain. Who is watching whom? And who are we to one another?

In this year’s Burntwood Lecture, Dr Gemma Harper explores a question that has followed her through her life and work: what might our relationships with the natural world reveal about ourselves?

Drawing on science, academic research, and personal reflection, she considers our desire to set humanity apart from other animals, our longing for certainty, and the place of wonder, belonging, care, and love in how we encounter the living world.

Part lecture, part personal journey, What Kind of Creature Loves Nature? is an invitation to think differently about nature, and about our place within the living world.

Our Speaker

Dr Gemma Harper OBE FAcSS FBES is Chief Executive of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the UK’s statutory adviser on nature.

Her career has taken her from marine conservation and nature recovery to international environmental diplomacy, always at the meeting point of science, policy, and people. Before joining JNCC, Gemma was Defra’s first Chief Social Scientist and led UK marine policy, receiving an OBE for services to the marine environment. With more than 30 years in public service, she is known for her inclusive leadership, belief in collaboration, and commitment to turning evidence into action. 

Alongside her professional life runs a long-standing fascination with the relationships between people, other animals, and the wider living world. As a social scientist, she has spent years exploring how those relationships shape the way we understand nature, and ourselves.

In this year’s Burntwood Lecture, What Kind of Creature Loves Nature?, Gemma brings together science, public service, academic research, and personal reflection to explore wonder, belonging, uncertainty, and what it means to be human in a more-than-human world.

Our Chair

Julie Hill MBE is IES President, a Non-executive Board Member of England and Northern Ireland’s Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), and Chair of the Advisory Committee for Social Science (ACSS) for the Food Standards Agency (FSA). Former board roles include Chair of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), board member of the Eden Project, the Environment Agency (EA), and the Consumer Council for Water (CCW). Prior to those roles, she was Executive Director of the environmental think tank Green Alliance.

Our Panel

Dr Tony Juniper CBE is Chair of Natural England and a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. A leading environmentalist for over 40 years, he has led global campaigns, advised governments and businesses, written award-winning books, and received a CBE for services to conservation.

Marsha Ramroop is a leading thinker and practitioner on inclusion, belonging, and organisational culture, bringing insight into identity, community, and the human systems within which environmental change happens.

Abi Gardner, policy professional and founder of GYBN UK - leading the UK's input into theGlobal Youth Biodiversity Network - brings a youth voice garnered from biodiversity advocacy, intergenerational responsibility, and environmental stewardship.

Beth Collier, CEO of Wild and the City, a thought leader bringing psychotherapeutic and ethnographic perspectives to understanding our relationship with nature, exploring disenfranchisement, belonging, and healing.

Event Schedule

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