In Common

NI#4: Building interdisciplinary collaborations with Georgina Cundill Kemp and Praneeta Mudaliar

In this episode, Hita, Maria and Dane were joined by Georgina Cundill Kemp, Senior Program Specialist at the ‎International Development Research Centre in Canada, and Praneeta Mudaliar, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Science at Ithaca College. We talked about their journeys towards interdisciplinary research, then discussed building interdisciplinary collaborations and the role of trust in collaborative research. We ended by hearing about their epic fails.

Georgina’s website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=YlMUPQIAAAAJ&hl 

Praneeta’s website: https://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/pmudliar

NI #3: Negotiating interdisciplinary environments with Nanda Wijermans

In this episode, Hita, Maria and Dane were joined by Nanda Wijermans, a Researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. We talked about Nanda’s journey towards interdisciplinary research, and then discussed the unique opportunities and challenges of working in an interdisciplinary environment, and how to design effective interdisciplinary environments. We ended by hearing about an epic fail.

 

Nanda’s website: https://www.nandawijermans.nl/ 

 

Dane’s website:

https://sustainability.asu.edu/person/dane-whittaker/

NI #2: Working with disciplinary traditions with Vanesa Castán Broto and Jennifer Vanos

In this episode of the Navigating Interdisciplinarity series, Hita, Maria and Dane  were joined by Vanesa Castán Broto, Professor of Climate Urbanism at the Urban Institute, The University of Sheffield; and Jennifer Vanos, Professor of Climate at Health at the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University. We talked about Jenni’s and Vanesa’s journey towards interdisciplinary research, and the idea of interdisciplinarity as an interplay of disciplinary institutions. We also touched upon balancing our passion for research with strategizing for career advancement, and ended with our guests sharing some of their epic fails in their academic journey.

 

Vanesa’s website: https://urbaninstitute.group.shef.ac.uk/who-we-are/prof-vanesa-castan-broto/

 

Jenni’s website:

https://sustainability.asu.edu/person/jennifer-vanos/

 

Dane’s website:

https://sustainability.asu.edu/person/dane-whittaker/ 

 

References:

Castán Broto, Vanesa, Maya Gislason, and Melf-Hinrich Ehlers. 2009. “Practising Interdisciplinarity in the Interplay between Disciplines: Experiences of Established Researchers.” Environmental Science & Policy 12 (7): 922–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2009.04.005.

Vanos, Jennifer K., Ariane Middel, Michelle N. Poletti, and Nancy J. Selover. 2018. “Evaluating the Impact of Solar Radiation on Pediatric Heat Balance within Enclosed, Hot Vehicles.” Temperature (Austin, Tex.) 5 (3): 276–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/23328940.2018.1468205.

 

We also spoke about these other books and lectures

1. Bogaard, Paul, ed. Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead: Philosophical Presuppositions of Science, 1924-1925. Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
2. Kuhn, Thomas S. The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago press, 2012.
3. Halberstam, Judith, and Jack Halberstam. The queer art of failure. Duke University Press, 2011.
4. Vatn, Arild. Institutions and the Environment. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007.

Introducing: Navigating Interdisciplinarity #1 with Svenja Hippel and Juan Nicolas Hernandez

This episode is the first of a six-episode miniseries we are hosting from the new Navigating Interdisciplinarity Podcast, produced by the Early Career Network of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC-ECN).

Series hosts: Hita Unnikrishnan and Maria Gerullis

Facilitators: Dane Whittaker and Nusrat Molla

In the Navigating Interdisciplinarity Series the hosts will discuss challenges faced and opportunities provided by engaging in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work, particularly from the perspective of early career researchers.

In this episode, Hita and Maria together with Dane Whittaker, PhD Student in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, were joined by Svenja Hippel, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Wuerzburg and Juan Nicolas Hernandez, an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University. We talked about Svenja and Nico’s journey towards interdisciplinary research, and then discussed building your research profile for the job market and how to answer the question “where do I fit?” We ended by hearing about some epic fails.

Svenja’s website: https://sites.google.com/view/svenjahippel

Nico’s website: https://www.jnicoha.com/ 

Dane’s website: https://sustainability.asu.edu/person/dane-whittaker/ 

Papers

Hernandez-Aguilera, J.N., Anderson, W., Bridges, A.L. et al. Supporting interdisciplinary careers for sustainability. Nat Sustain 4, 374–375 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-00679-y

Nicolas Hernandez-Aguilera. Coffee, hummus, and sustainability: What is the future of our careers? Supporting interdisciplinary career paths to solve sustainability crises. https://sustainabilitycommunity.springernature.com/posts/coffee-hummus-and-sustainability-what-is-the-future-of-our-careers-supporting-interdisciplinary-career-paths-to-solve-sustainability-crises?channel_id=behind-the-paper

 

075: Scale mismatches and theory building with Graeme Cumming

In this episode, Stefan spoke with Graeme Cumming.  Graeme is a Professor at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia and the Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Graeme has a wide range of interests centering around understanding spatial aspects of ecology and the relevance of scale in ecosystem and social-ecological system function and resilience. He is also interested in the applications of landscape ecology and complexity theory to conservation and the sustainable management of natural resources. 

In the conversation, they discuss his extensive international experience, and the topics he has focused on throughout his career, including his upbringing in Zimbabwe. We discuss how theory is often lacking in applied research, and how building theory, particularly at the relevant scales, is an important challenge in his research program. We close the interview with his vision for examining what is beyond resilience, and the theoretical ideas he is interested in over the coming years.

Link to Post-Ostrom agenda paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1877343520300129

Link to scale mismatch on GBR paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590332220303511

University page

https://www.coralcoe.org.au/person/gscumming

Google Scholar page

 

 

www.incommonpodcast.org

 

Twitter: @incommonpod

074: Urban resilience and green infrastructure with Sara Meerow

In this episode Michael spoke with Sara Meerow, an assistant professor at the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. Sara is an interdisciplinary social-ecological systems scientist who focuses on urban geography and planning. Sara spoke with Michael about her work on the concept of urban resilience and on multifunctional green infrastructure projects, and the ways in which such projects often favor biophysical interventions to deal with stormwater-related sewage overflows, rather than broader environmental and social issues such as heat and pollution.

Sara's website: https://sgsup.asu.edu/sara-meerow

References:

Meerow, Sara, and Joshua P. Newell. 2019. “Urban Resilience for Whom, What, When, Where, and Why?” Urban Geography 40 (3): 309–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1206395.

Meerow, Sara. 2020. “The Politics of Multifunctional Green Infrastructure Planning in New York City.” Cities  100 (May): 102621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2020.102621.

073: Polycentricity with Tomas Koontz and Praneeta Mudaliar

In this episode, Divya and Michael interview Tomas Koontz and Praneeta Mudaliar. Tomas Koontz is a Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington. Praneeta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences at the Ithaca College. Tom was Divya's Ph.D. advisor, and Praneeta was her Ph.D. cohort, so doing this episode was also like a virtual reunion and served as an opportunity for Praneeta and Divya to reminisce and reflect on their journeys of navigating graduate school as international students in the United States, and Tom shared his experience of working with and mentoring international students.

 

Both Tom and Praneeta discussed their case studies on using polycentricity as a lens to study fisheries management in Lake Victoria (Praneeta) and collaborative governance of the socio-ecological systems in Puget Sound (Tom). Praneeta elaborated on how she used the concept of polycentricity to examine power dynamics in multi-level and multi-actor interactions in lake fisheries governance. Tom shared how the lens of polycentricity enabled him to examine multi-stakeholder collaboration in decision-making and collaborative governance among stakeholders across different scales. Together, both Tom and Praneeta reflected on ways science and scientific theories can inform practitioners in their decision-making process.

 

 

Praneeta's website: https://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/pmudliar

Tom's website: https://directory.tacoma.uw.edu/employee/koontz31

 

References:

1. Mudaliar, P. (2020). Polycentric to monocentric governance: Power dynamics in Lake Victoria's fisheries. Environmental Policy and Governance.

2. Mudaliar, P., & O'Brien, L. (2021). Crowding-out lower-level authorities: Interactions and transformations of higher and lower-level authorities in Kenya's polycentric fisheries. Environmental Science & Policy, 118, 27-35.

3. Koontz, T. M. (2021). Science and scale mismatch: Horizontal and vertical information sharing in the Puget Sound polycentric governance system. Journal of Environmental Management, 290, 112600.

4. Koontz, T. M. (2019). Cooperation in polycentric governance systems. Governing complexity: Analyzing and applying polycentricity, 115-132.

072: Changes on the land with Eduardo Brondizio

In this episode, Michael chatted with Eduardo Brondizio, a professor of anthropology at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Eduardo spoke to Michael about his research on land use and land cover change in the Brazilian amazon over several decades, as well as his work as the editor-in-chief of two major academic journals: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability and Global Environmental Change. They also talked about Eduardo's identity as an interdisciplinary anthropologist.

Eduardo's website: https://anthropology.indiana.edu/about/faculty/brondizio-eduardo.html

Commoning #8: Water Commons with Ruth Meinzen Dick, Tomás Olivier, and Edella Schlager

In this Commoning episode, Courtney speaks to Edella Schlager, Tomás Olivier, and Ruth Meinzen Dick on the Water Commons. Edella, Tomás and Ruth were part of the organizing team for the IASC 2021 Virtual Water Commons conference held in May. Edella Schlager is the Director of the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. Tomás Olivier is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public Administration at Florida Atlantic University. Finally, Ruth Meinzen Dick is a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. In this conversation, we run the gamut on water commons, discussing Ruth, Tomás and Edella's take on the state of water commons research, core canonical topics, such as collective action in governance of water that remains of top relevance today, and new directions, such as the need for greater theorizing on complexity and coordination around collective action in water commons. We also get some insights from the field, drawing on Edella and Tomás research linking institutions and behavior in the New York City watershed, Tomás insights from work in Argentina and Ruth's recent work on irrigation games for social learning in India.

 

You can find more about the Water commons Conference and other IASC events on their website: https://iasc-commons.org/ 

 

Here are a couple of the publications that we reference in the conversation:

Ruth Meinzen-Dick's paper on property rights and collective action in irrigation : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377414000894

Edella Schlager and Tomás Olivier's paper on integrating institutional analysis and behavior: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/psj.12429?casa_token=qby9ACV3S74AAAAA:XyZjtK25Sat87uRHnJ3Uctwl3wVNrFLdN50vCAlkwgWlkCGg2IDCouQ8yp3C3UH_vxYREuUAkG0I

 

For more information about our guests, you can check out their webpages:

Ruth Meinzen-Dick: https://www.ifpri.org/profile/ruth-meinzen-dick

Tomás Olivier: https://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/public-administration/people/olivier/

Edella Schlager: https://sgpp.arizona.edu/people/edella-schlager

071: Environmental communication with Bridie McGreavy

In this episode Michael is joined by a guest host, Karen Bieluch, a colleague of his at Dartmouth College. Karen led a conversation with her friend and colleague, Bridie McGreavy. Bridie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, Orono. During the interview, Karen asked Bridie about her work studying the shellfish fisheries in Maine, with a focus on the ways in which communication affects collaborative freshwater conversation efforts.

Bridie's website: https://bmcgreavy.org/

Also check out: The Mudflat, a collaborative website of the Maine Shellfish Learning Network