Dr Tamas Lestar

Biography

Dr Tamas Lestar is Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management in the Department of Responsible Management and Leadership. He holds a PhD in management and sustainability from the University of Essex. For several years, he has been investigating spiritual communities and practices in the context of dietary change and sustainability transitions.

Tamas taught qualitative research methods, new venture creation, social innovation and other management and organisation modules internationally, including in China. He brings colour to the classroom by building on his experiences in ethnography, social enterprising and travelling in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Prior to finding his niche and happy fulfilment in academia, Tamas worked internationally as a company owner and serial entrepreneur in both the for-profit and charitable sectors. He welcomes start-up ideas addressing practical issues such as climate change, health, and well-being. Currently, he supports social entrepreneurs in Kenya who promote plant-based diets and more sustainable lifestyles.

Publications

Eating Together in the Twenty-first Century. Social Challenges, Community Values, Individual Wellbeing. Tamas Lestar, Manuela Pilato & Hugues Séraphin (Eds), 2023. Routledge

Potluck in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Two auto-ethnographic accounts. Lestar, T. & Garcia Portilla, J. In: Tamas Lestar, Manuela Pilato & Hugues Séraphin (Eds). Eating Together in the Twenty-first Century. Social Challenges, Community Values, Individual Wellbeing. Routledge

A Seventh-day Adventist farm community in Tanzania and vegetarianism as a social practice, Journal of Organizational Ethnography ISSN: 2046-6749 Article publication date: 20 September 2022

Why imported veg is still more sustainable than local meat? The Conversation (May 2021) Read it online

Religions going nuts? Faith-based veganism and transformative learning in the context of sustainability transitions (case 1: The Hare Krishna movement) Lestar, T., 4 Jul 2020, In: Journal of Organizational Change Management. Read it online 

Ecospirituality and sustainability transitions: agency towards degrowth. Lestar, T. & Böhm, S., 1 Jan 2020, In: Religion, State and Society. 48, 1, p. 56-73 18 p. Read it online 

Conviviality? Eating Together with Hare Krishna Believers. Lestar, T., 5 Jun 2018, In: Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 8, 3, p. 15-26 12 p. Read it online 

Disconnecting from Technology on Hare Krishna Farms. Lestar, T., 5 Nov 2018, In: Human Geography. 11, 3, p. 43-56 14 p. Read it online 

Spiritual Conversion and Dietary Change: Empirical Investigations in Two Eco-spiritual Communities. Lestar, T., 1 June 2017, In: Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 7, 3, p. 23-34 12 p. Read it online