Postdoctoral researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute
I am a conservation scientist who uses both biological and social science methods to help make conservation both more effective and more socially just. My
PhD at the University of Manchester and Chester Zoo focused on the eastern black rhino in Kenya. I used metabarcoding and population modelling to investigate variable breeding success between individuals and reserves in Laikipia, and determine if this was in part caused by differences in diet. I also used social science methods to study the role of zoos and concepts of wildness in the conservation of large herbivores.
I spent a few years working on research, land use and climate change policy for the British Ecological Society and Citizens Advice, and have now returned to academia as a postdoc at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen. I focus on the CONLAB (Conservation Labor: A New Frontier in Labor Theory and Conservation Science) project, studying how biodiversity conservation affects labor dynamics across axes of social difference and hierarchies of wage labour.