Research Trajectory

Future:

I am very interested in pursuing future comparative research between Canada and Greenland as well as Norway. I am very keen to expand my research networks in Northern Norway and keen to encourage greater links between Canadian and Norwegian polar scholars. The research I have been doing around northern food systems and traditional livelihoods remains an ongoing interest, and I hope to be able to continue in this direction – looking at how wildlife management regimes and community needs intersect, particularly within the framework of climate adaptation.

I have been developing an interest in the impact of the extractive sector on Canada, amongst First Nations and Inuit communities for many years. I am particularly interesting in governance tools and financial mechanisms such as sovereign wealth funds (based on Nordic models), and how they can be applied to give Indigenous communities greater autonomy.

Present:

I am currently pursuing work advising aboriginal groups and regional governments across Canada as a member of the Firelight Group. I specialize in providing research and advisory services relating to all aspects of traditional use and occupancy, land-use and resource policy.

Past:

I completed an MA in Geography at McGill university focused on wildlife management and caribou hunting on Southern Baffin Island and understanding the intersecting impacts of socio-economic change and environmental change on the caribou hunting behaviours of the community of Iqaluit.

As an undergraduate student at the University of British Columbia I worked as a research assistant on a wide variety of projects ranging from phytogenetic analysis into the impacts of climate change on plant genetics, to work looking at the impacts of ocean warming on coral. I was also fortunate to have the chance to assist in research around global oil markets, resource rents and resource-driven conflicts. After these diverse experiences I concluded that my interests lay at the intersection points of human and physical geography – I was most attracted to work that combined a sound ecological and biological grounding with rigorous research into the human impacts of change.