Below, I've gone into minor detail regarding my academic interests. I have purposely left these descriptions fairly vague so as not to 'muddy-up' this site, but if you would like to know more about my thoughts on any of these, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Relationships with our environments. As I'm sure you've noticed, this is the topic that most drives me. I presume that everybody has a relationship with their environment (for better or worse), and I want to better understand how the diversity of these relationships coalesce around different governance strategies while also exploring those forces in our world that constrain, impact, or otherwise change these relationships.
Environmental governance. Following from the relationships we have with our environments, I am interested in understanding the different environmental governance strategies that are employed in policy and management including what they take for granted, what they imply, and what sorts of relationships they allow. Put another way, how do different strategies serve to construct our relationships with the environment?
Community engaged decision-making. 'Community engagement' is a broad term and concept that is applied to many processes in many different contexts. I am interested in its application to environmental decision-making, recognizing that there are deep questions regarding those communities that are engaged (and, conversely, those that are not), how they are engaged and for what purpose, and the moral background that underlies their engagement.
Interpretive faculties and communication. As two (or more) people come together with their diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and relationships with their worlds, they must be able to interpret each other in order to communicate. What does this look like? I explore those characteristics of interpretation that allow us to communicate and what they imply about our abilities to engage together around difficult problems while respecting and celebrating each other's diversity.
The imagination and the imaginary. How do our worlds influence our imaginations and, reflexively, how do our imaginations influence our worlds? The human imagination is powerful and consideration of its effects on our relationships in the world helps me to understand those ways in which we construct, reinforce, and modify our actions and behaviors. Similarly, I'm interested in understanding how the social imaginary helps to clarify how communities and groups act together to influence the institutions that drive our group decisions.
