News

Congratulations to Schulich Law PhD student Loveth Ovedje (LLM ’24) on being named one of the nine Dalhousie University graduate students selected for the 2025 OpenThink cohort. Ovedje will share her research, which focuses on examining how developing countries can use innovative financial tools to accelerate the shift to renewable energy, through monthly OpenThink blog posts.

The OpenThink Initiative, offered by the Faculty of Graduate Studies for its sixth year, provides PhD students from across the university with the communications skills and platform needed to share their research more widely, to inform public discourse and to influence policy. Guided by communications experts from Dalhousie, the University of King's College, and NATIONAL Public Relations, OpenThinkers receive training in how to reach public audiences and share their knowledge.

In turn, they become ambassadors for graduate studies at Dal, as well as for their own work, by sharing their research and ideas via social media, blogs, public speaking opportunities, media interviews, articles, and op-eds. They also receive a $1,500 scholarship and are eligible to apply for OpenThink funding to travel to relevant conferences and workshops.

“Being selected as an OpenThinker is an exciting opportunity to bridge the gap between academic research and public understanding,” says Ovedje. “Through my OpenThink blog series on the Paris Agreement, I hope to spark meaningful conversations about how international climate law affects us all and why it matters more than ever.”

The Marine & Environmental Law Institute at the Schulich School of Law stood out as an ideal place for her to pursue her master’s, and now her PhD, thanks to its robust legal research environment and the opportunity to work closely with leading scholars in her areas of interest – natural resources, energy, and environmental law.

“My PhD research explores how international climate finance law and policy can be made more inclusive and transformative for developing countries,” Ovedje explains. “It focuses on the legal and policy barriers that limit the ability of these countries to access and deploy renewable energy through existing finance mechanisms and proposes reforms to ensure a more equitable, efficient, and impactful global climate finance framework.”

Ovedje’s OpenThink blog will be published monthly throughout the year, sharing her ideas, opinions, and insights as they develop.