Rebecca Blackburn

PhD Candidate
Research School of Psychology

Rebecca is a PhD candidate in Psychology at ANU. Her research explores whether a minimalist lifestyle can provide insights on how to reduce consumption and if this lifestyle has benefits for wellbeing. Her supervisors are Dr Zoe Leviston (School of Medicine and Psychology, ANU), Professor Iain Walker (Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne) and Dr Ashley Schram (School of Regulation and Global Governance, ANU)

Rebecca has a Masters of Environmental Science and Technology from UNSW where she investigated priority actions for reducing the environmental impact of households. She used this work to write a popular science book Green is Good – Smart Ways to Live Well and Help the Planet. Previously she worked as an environment manager and freelance science writer.

She is a recipient of the inaugural Game Change Fund Supporting Climate Change Research scholarship, and an Australian Government Research Training Program (AGRTP) Scholarship.

Blackburn, R., Leviston, Z., Walker, I., and Schram, A., (2023)   Could a minimalist lifestyle reduce carbon emissions and improve wellbeing? A review of minimalism and other low consumption lifestyles Wiley Interdisciplinary reviews: Climate Change, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.865