I am fortunate to have excellent colleagues to work with, both within the School and across the University. Fellow political ecologists sustain a lively research culture within the School, and our efforts are supported by a number of scholars elsewhere at UVic who share an interest in all things political ecological. I have also enjoyed productive collaborations within the School but beyond the boundaries of political ecology (see for example “Fish Farms and Neoliberalism: Salmon Aquaculture in British Columbia,” co-authored with John Volpe), and anticipate more of these in future.
My energy literacy has been developed largely in conversation with colleagues at the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, an enormously welcoming focal point for research on sustainability in/and energy systems. Likewise the Cultural, Social and Political Thought Graduate Program is a hotbed for innovative work, consistently attracting excellent students who work hard to foster a politically-engaged intellectual community.
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, graduate and undergraduate students continue to raise interesting and important questions, and to contribute to keeping things lively and intellectually challenging.
Recent Graduate Students
2020 Emily Paige Bishop, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: The Forces of Yes: Analyzing Community-Scale Resistance to LNG Development in British Columbia
2019 Dana Cook, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: A Powerful Landscape: First Nations Small-Scale Renewable Energy Development in British Columbia
2018 Eryn Fitzgerald, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: Powering Self-Determination: Indigenous Renewable Energy Developments in British Columbia
2015 Mathew Murray, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: Re-scaling Governance: First Nations and the Challenge of Shale Gas Development in British Columbia
2015 Christine Twerdoclib, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: Monitoring Expertise: A perspective on environmental impacts monitoring in northeast British Columbia
2013 Kathryn Garvie, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: Beyond Consultation: First Nations and the Governance of Shale Gas in British Columbia
2013 Lindsay Monk, MA Environmental Studies.
Thesis: Decolonizing Home: A re-conceptualization of First Nations’ housing in Canada
2012 Nathaniel Gosman, MA Environmental Studies.
Thesis: Maximizing Energy Savings Reliability in BC Hydro Industrial Demand-side Management Programs: An Assessment of Performance Incentive Models
2012 Anna Melnik, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: Inner Sustainability: Exploring experiences of needs, satisfaction, and frustration in sustainable lifestyle practices
2011 Margaret (Maggie) Low, MA Environmental Studies
Thesis: Negotiating Environmental Governance: Lessons from the Great Bear Rainforest Agreements in British Columbia, Canada
Co-Supervisor
2019 James Davey, MA History and CSPT
2018 Kevin McCartney, MA Sociology
Thesis: Pricing Air to Starve the Fire: An Institutional Ethnography of Smart Prosperity
2015 Garrett Richards, PhD (Interdisciplinary: Env. Studies/Political Science) Thesis: Climate Change Action through Co-Productive Design in Science-Policy Partnerships at Municipal, Provincial, and National Levels of Government
2012 Mekonnen Aragaw, PhD: Interdisciplinary (Environmental Studies/Anthropology)
Thesis: Assessing the Impacts of Rural Electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ethiopia
2011 Michael Large, LLM in Faculty of Law
Thesis: Ecological Degradation and Population Demands: Wicked problems and the rule of rules in Canada/America
2010 Blake Anderson, MA, Environmental Studies
Thesis: Fossilizing Democracy: The Twin Energy Crisis and the Challenge to Liberal Democracy.
2009 Victor Lorentz, MA, Political Science and CSPT
Thesis: Producing the Boreal: The Politics of Environmentalism, Capitalism and Nature in Canada’s Northern Forests.
2009 Catherine D. Rhodes, MA Dispute Resolution, University of Victoria
Thesis: Cross Cultural Neighbors: Exploring Settler Responses to the Tsawwassen Urban Treaty
2008 Michael Optis, MASc (Mechanical Engineering), University of Victoria
Thesis: Incorporating Life Cycle Assessment into the LEED Green Building Rating System
Karena Shaw 