About Me
I am an environmental sociologist working in the areas of environmental communication, climate adaptation, human-nature relationships, and perceptions of risk related to technologies in environmental contexts. My research is informed by place, community partners, and critical thought and scholarship.
Connect with Me
I welcome conversations about research, collaboration, and ideas. If you’d like to connect, have questions about my work, or want to discuss a project, feel free to reach out!
I am a third-generation settler of Scottish, English, and Irish descent. I was born in Toronto in the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
I currently live in Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, which for millenia has been the traditional lands of the Kanien'kehá:ka Nation, and the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabeg peoples. My work takes place in many unceded, traditional Indigenous territories and places with treaty obligations. As a visitor to these places, I carry an obligation to the land, creatures, and the peoples that have been connected to them since time immemorial.
I am an Assistant Professor (Professeure adjointe) at the Université du Québec à Montréal in the Département de communication sociale et publique.
I recently completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with the CERC Network for Equity in Sustainability Transitions at the University of Toronto, working with Dr. Patricia Romero-Lankao and others on community-driven research in Toronto, Los Angeles, and Mexico City.
I have a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of British Columbia on wild Pacific salmon conservation and I completed an M.A. in socio-legal
studies at York University. I have recently worked on projects studying open science and environmental data ethics through a SEEK Commons Fellowship, invasive species, assisted migration, and genomic applications in forest climate adaptation through an FRQ-SC Postdoctoral Fellowship with Dr. Vivian Nguyen and Dr. Stephan Schott (Carleton University) and collaborators at the University of Alberta and the University of British Columbia, and community-engaged coastal resilience work as an Extension Specialist in Human Dimensions of Coastal Systems at Oregon Sea Grant and Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Public Policy at Oregon State University.
Research Interests
My work is focused on understanding how we communicate about urgent challenges facing humans and non-humans as climate change continues to accelerate ecosystem shifts and biodiversity loss. Climate adaptation requires confronting and re-imagining human relations to the environment. As an environmental sociologist, I am interested in how people understand and manage the risks of human interventions into nature, and how debates unfold over pathways to climate futures. Novel technologies (genomics, AI) are being proposed as climate solutions, but their deployment may also perpetuate environmental inequalities. My work critically engages with the changing meaning of "wildness" in the Anthropocene and seeks ways to develop transformative approaches to human-nature entanglements.
Wildness and Nature
Shifting human-nature relationships and meaning in a changing world
Governance, Ethics, Trust
Making better decisions under increasing uncertainty
Knowledge and Technology
Mobilizing knowledge, power, and the future of decision-making
Resilience and Adaptation
How people and places respond to social-ecological challenges