Nathan J Bennett

You found me. Welcome. I am currently a Research Associate at the University of British Columbia (Canada). I am also the chair of the People and the Oceans Specialist Group for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).As a broadly trained environmental social scientist and human-environment geographer, I choose to primarily focus on research projects that interrogate various aspects of the complex relationship between the environment and human society with a critical and solution-oriented lens. My interests are broad and global – I research and publish on such topics as social equity and governance in marine protected areas, responses of small-scale fishing communities to combined environmental and social change, indigenous perspectives on and approaches to conservation, the political dimensions of ocean governance and the blue economy, coastal community access to marine resources and fisheries, and the role of the social sciences in conservation. This work draws on research conducted in Canada, Thailand, Mexico, Europe, and from global case studies. My work bridges the practical, methodological and theoretical while drawing on scholarship from human-environment geography, political ecology, development studies, natural resource management and insights from political science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and ecology. An environmental and social ethic shaped by lifelong explorations of natural areas and peopled land- and sea-scapes and experiences working in diverse communities guides my work and research.I graduated from the University of Victoria with a PhD in Geography from the University of Victoria in 2013, a MS in Environmental Studies from Lakehead University in 2009 and a BEd from the University of Victoria in 2002. My work has been supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2010-2013), a Trudeau Doctoral Scholarship (2010-2013), a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (2013-2015), a Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award (2015), a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-2017), and a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellowship (2015-2017). I am an active member of the Commission on Ecological, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) and the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In addition, I am affiliated with the OceanCanada Partnership, the Community Conservation Research Network, and Too Big To Ignore project.
Phone: https://nathanbennett.ca
Address: https://nathanbennett.ca