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Bio/Research
I received my PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, in 2020. I have an MA in International Relations History from the University of Toronto, and a BA in History/Political Studies from the University of Guelph.
Since 2010, I have taught in the Global Studies...
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Since 2010, I have taught in the Global Studies...
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Bio/Research
I received my PhD from the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, in 2020. I have an MA in International Relations History from the University of Toronto, and a BA in History/Political Studies from the University of Guelph.
Since 2010, I have taught in the Global Studies program at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Peace Studies Program at McMaster University, Hamilton. Between 2008 to 2017, I was also a part-time faculty member in the Department of Political Science at Western University.
From 2005-2007, I was resident assistant professor at the UN mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica, in the Department of Environment, Peace and Security. In 2006-07, I was the project director of UPEACE’s Climate Change and Adaptation project. Between 2008 to 2010, I was an adjunct professor at UPEACE. I am also an associate fellow of the Institute for Environmental Security in The Hague, and a member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Academy.
I specialize in qualitative research linking human pressure on the environment and violent conflict. My recently completed dissertation explores the conflict impacts of human induced environmental and demographic change in Chuschi and Quispillacta, two communities in south-central Ayacucho, in Peru’s southern highlands. It documents the interaction between long term environmental and demographic changes in this region in relation to the currents of economic, social, and political change that have buffeted highland Peru over the past half century. This area of Peru is of particular interest because it is one of the central locations in Peru’s dirty war between the Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian military in the 1980s. The dissertation finds that these changes were important for conditioning the patterns of local violence in the latter half of the 20th century in Cangallo. I am working to revise my thesis into a book manuscript.
I have a deep background on all aspects of environment-conflict research, including climate change-conflict research, and more general environmental security studies. Research on environmental peacebuilding is also an area of specialization and teaching that I have been increasingly developing over the past five years.
I also have an extensive background in international security studies, including military history and war studies. Before moving into environment-conflict research, I conducted archival research on U.S. nuclear weapons policy and doctrine in the early Cold War era.
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Since 2010, I have taught in the Global Studies program at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Peace Studies Program at McMaster University, Hamilton. Between 2008 to 2017, I was also a part-time faculty member in the Department of Political Science at Western University.
From 2005-2007, I was resident assistant professor at the UN mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica, in the Department of Environment, Peace and Security. In 2006-07, I was the project director of UPEACE’s Climate Change and Adaptation project. Between 2008 to 2010, I was an adjunct professor at UPEACE. I am also an associate fellow of the Institute for Environmental Security in The Hague, and a member of the Environmental Peacebuilding Academy.
I specialize in qualitative research linking human pressure on the environment and violent conflict. My recently completed dissertation explores the conflict impacts of human induced environmental and demographic change in Chuschi and Quispillacta, two communities in south-central Ayacucho, in Peru’s southern highlands. It documents the interaction between long term environmental and demographic changes in this region in relation to the currents of economic, social, and political change that have buffeted highland Peru over the past half century. This area of Peru is of particular interest because it is one of the central locations in Peru’s dirty war between the Sendero Luminoso and the Peruvian military in the 1980s. The dissertation finds that these changes were important for conditioning the patterns of local violence in the latter half of the 20th century in Cangallo. I am working to revise my thesis into a book manuscript.
I have a deep background on all aspects of environment-conflict research, including climate change-conflict research, and more general environmental security studies. Research on environmental peacebuilding is also an area of specialization and teaching that I have been increasingly developing over the past five years.
I also have an extensive background in international security studies, including military history and war studies. Before moving into environment-conflict research, I conducted archival research on U.S. nuclear weapons policy and doctrine in the early Cold War era.
Click to Shrink <<