University of British Columbia

Post-Doc, Sociology

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Thesis Title: Power, Science, and Nature in The Great Bear Rainforest: An Actor-Network Analysis of an Integrated Natural Resource Management Project

About

As an environmental sociologist, I am primarily interested in the social dimensions of natural resource management, environmental remediation and community resilience. 

My doctoral work focused on the influence of non-state actors on decision-making for public resources.  I drew on actor-network theory to examine environmentalists' efforts to convene a heterogeneous network in support of their redefinition of British Columbia's coastal forests as the "Great Bear Rainforest."

During a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the W. Maurice Young Centre of Applied Ethics (UBC), I examined public acceptability of ecogenomics-enhanced bioremediation, a novel technology designed to treat polluted mine drainage.

Currently, I am a Posdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, UBC.  I am conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis of survey and interview data of BC's coastal communities, looking at the role of social capital in fostering community resilience in the face of declining resource industries.

Future work will include an exploration of the nature and role of agency in the design of resilient social-ecological systems.