University of Cambridge

Graduate Student, Geography

Doctoral Student

Darwin College

Thesis Title: Exploring sustainable futures through planning events

About

My research interests broadly lie in the area of environmental governance, with a particular focus on the processes of policy change, the implementation of such policies, and the policy knowledge that is produced when citizens encounter policies as they become material reality. I study this process through planning and appraisal events for large projects that are proposed in rural Canada.

My PhD research project, entitled "Exploring sustainable futures through planning events", considers two important policy areas that have experienced important shifts in recent years: (a) energy and climate change policy and (b) aboriginal policy. Planning events often generate useful policy knowledge (Owens et al., 2004), revealing mechanisms influencing this change and insights on policy success or failure. I will examine one project planning event, an offshore wind farm proposed off of the east coast of Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, where other energy projects (e.g. Enbridge Gateway) are also being proposed that contrast in their fit with present climate policy. I am particularly interested in understanding how these policy changes are shaping the way we understand development and what relationships come to matter as climate change is framed as an urgent policy priority.

Prior to starting my PhD in 2009, I was employed as an environmental planner in Vancouver, Canada, working mainly on natural resource and energy projects and community planning initiatives in western and northern Canada and Alaska. I also undertook a research-based MA considering largely voluntary impact and benefit agreements negotiated between First Nations and mining companies alongside the project appraisal process in the Northwest Territories, Canada.

I am currently based out of the Geography Department at Cambridge, where I am teaching, writing, and organizing various talks and events.

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