Research

My work focuses on how glaciers, landscapes, and the people who dwell within them are responding to ongoing climate change. Some of my current research projects focus on  landscape and hazards responses to changing glacier dynamics, the effects of climate change on glacier meltwater systems, and the lived experiences of people living with these changes. I have ongoing research projects in BC, Alaska, Patagonia, Greenland and the Himalayas. I am fascinated with all components of geomorphic change, particularly the loss of ice, the imprints of humans on the landscape, and how we process and adapt (or maladapt) with the cascading effects of climate change.

I am also interested in the limitations of western scientific thought in understanding and living with landscape change in the Anthropocene, and what other ways of knowing and being are necessary if we are to survive the climate and nature emergency.

Research groups I enjoy thinking and playing with at UBC include the Systems Being Lab, Himalaya program,  Center for Climate Justice,  Sound and the Humanities research cluster, Critical Physical Geography group, Indigenous/Science research cluster and the Public Humanities Hub

Current Research ProjectsIMG_4468

  • Physiographic signatures of climate change in the Anthropocene
  • Indigenous, local and place-based knowledges of landscape change
  • Braiding worldviews and perspectives of climate change in mountain regions
  • Glacier erosion, ice dynamics and ice-sediment-ocean interactions from source to sink
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  • Landscape dynamics, natural hazards and paraglacial landscape relaxation due to glacier shrinkage 
  • Glacier melt runoff and response to climate change in the Himalayas and Pacific Northwest 
  • Adaptation and resilience in high mountain communities
  • Critical physical geography and reflexivity in science
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion in the geosciences
  • Soundscapes and Acoustic geomorphology

For examples of the types of conceptual and empirical research I do, here are some links to recent public talks:

A research talk in May 2021 as part of the Wiley presents Women Advancing River Research seminar series:

https://youtu.be/UuUix84uppcBraiding knowledges of braided rivers, WARR

A research talk in the global LandscapesLive! seminar series on October 1, 2020

 LandscapesLive! Seminar 10/01/2020

A public talk on the cascading effects of climate change on mountains, with the Salt Spring Forum in March 2021:

Salt Spring Forum, March 30, 2021