Rafael Lembi

My goal as a scholar is to co-create transformative research that contributes to advancing our collective understanding on how sustainability transformations happen or could happen, while also contributing to community-led change processes.

My research agenda is grounded on a reflexive research practice and is particularly attentive to justice and equity dimensions of transformations.

I specialize in the design, facilitation and evaluation of transdisciplinary processes of knowledge co-production. 

Due to my interdisciplinary training in the natural and social sciences, I am able to engage in productive dialogues across diverse epistesmologies and disciplinary frameworks. My lived experiences and fieldwork also taught me the value and relevance of engaging with diverse knowledge systems. 

Methodologically, I am an experienced process facilitator and qualitative researcher. Case studies and place-based research are common approaches in my work.

For specific areas of expertise, consult my publications section.

Currently, I am in the last year of my PhD at the Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University (defense expected in April-May 2026). My dissertation examines energy transitions in the Brazilian Amazon (Santarém, Pará), analyzing how off-grid Indigenous and traditional communities experience access to photovoltaic energy systems, its impacts, and possibilities for more just and decolonial energy transitions.