Julia Wright has a background in international research and development, seeking to integrate ecological (organic and permaculture) thinking into conventional agricultural systems and organisations, including in humanitarian settings. After studying at Trinity St Davids (University of Wales), Silsoe College (Cranfield University) and Wye College (London University), she worked for some years in South America before undertaking a PhD at Wageningen University on the coping strategies of the Cuban farming sector during the country's period of food and fuel shortages in the 1990s, resulting in the Earthscan publication Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba (2009). Returning to the UK in 2003 to lead the International Programme of the organic NGO Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association), in 2011 she was involved in establishing the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University, where she has since been developing a research programme on the discipline of Subtle Agroecologies.