Click here to see our new and expanding community as we transition from the Anthropocene to the Ecozoic – visit the Leadership for the Ecozoic Webpage.
If you wish to read about what our graduates are up to post-E4A, read more below and find out!
ben collins (McGill)
Ben is a Ph.D. graduate in the Faculty of Engineering at McGill. Born and raised in British Columbia, Ben received both his Bachelor and Master of Applied Science from the University of British Columbia. As a graduate student, he looked at how to better incorporate traditional knowledge of the Stk’emlupsemc te Secwepemc Nation into reclamation and mine closure planning. Since completing his Masters, he has been working as a consultant with Indigenous communities on environmental reclamation and land use planning decisions of mineral development properties. For his Ph.D. research, he is looking to continue his work with Indigenous communities, and to study how to better make resource management decisions, while considering the differences in values, wants, and needs of society.
Keywords: minerals, metals, energy, indigenous communities, environmental values, reclamation
Email: bcollins778@gmail.com
TIMOTHY CROWNSHAW (MCGILL)
Tim is a PhD graduate in the department of Natural Resource Sciences at McGill. Prior to this he worked in the electricity industry as an operations analyst at Transpower, the national transmission system operator in New Zealand. He has collaborated in a variety of research projects related to renewable energy and emerging technologies, including distribution network impacts of solar PV and the integration of distributed generation into power system operations. Tim holds a Master of Energy degree and a Graduate Diploma in Engineering from the University of Auckland, and a Bachelor of Science in physics and mathematics from the University of Otago. His primary research interests involve non-renewable energy dependency in industrial societies, global transition pathways from non-renewable to renewable energy resources, and quantitative modelling approaches including system dynamics and stochastic optimization.
Keywords: energy transition, degrowth, systems modelling, energy return on energy invested (EROEI), societal metabolism.
Partners: GoldSim Monte Carlo Simulation Software www.goldsim.com.
Email: timothy.crownshaw@mail.mcgill.ca
Benjamin Dube (UVM)
Ben is a PhD graduate in Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. He has an undergraduate degree in Agriculture and Food Systems from Green Mountain College. He continued working there after graduation as a farmer, educator & researcher on energy issues in small scale farming systems. His research investigates the multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes in both producing food and ecosystem services and implications for government policy in supporting farmers.
Keywords: Philosophy of Science, Agroecology, Ecological Economics
Twitter:@benjamintdube/Email: benjamintdube@gmail.com
Alice Damiano (McGill)
Alice is a PhD graduate in Renewable Resources at McGill University. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics and a Master’s Degree in International Development, Cooperation and Environmental Studies, major in Environmental Economics and Policies, both from the University of Turin, Italy. She worked as consultant in the data warehouse field for four years, during and after her Master’s studies. Alice is interested in interdisciplinary research, and in her PhD she is working on the idea of learning from the Indigenous peoples—with respectful recognition and not unfair appropriation—how to establish a better relationship with the environment, especially in a context of natural and environmental disasters. She is passionate about climate change, natural catastrophes and the idea of going beyond the concept of homo oeconomicus through Behavioural Economics, Ecological Economics and Indigenous Studies. Beside being an E4A fellow, Alice was a blogger for GradLife McGill between 2017 and 2019. Her GradLife blog posts are available here.
Keywords: Indigenous, worldview, environmental change, disaster, decision making.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-damiano/
Twitter: aellis_29
Blog: https://aliceintheanthropocene.wordpress.com
Academia: https://mcgill.academia.edu/AliceDamiano
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alice_Damiano
Martin Sers (York)
Martin is a PhD graduate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. He is keenly interested in new approaches to the study of macroeconomics that considers both the physical and financial system dimensions of economic activity and how these might be studied together. His research interest is in the relatively new approach to macroeconomics called ecological macroeconomics, and specifically in the derivation of stock-flow consistent input-output (SFCIO) models. Martin’s current work lies in the development of a continuous-time SFCIO model incorporating energy in order to study the dynamics of energy transitions. Broadly he is motivated by the question of how to think about macroeconomics for a world defined by planetary boundaries. Martin has a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics from Mount Allison University and a Master’s degree in Economics from Carleton University. He has previously worked as an applied-economist in Cambridge, UK on the large scale model E3ME exploring the environmental and economic impacts of various policy scenarios.
Email: mrsers@mta.ca
Twitter: @MartinRSers
Caitlin Morgan (UVM)
Caitlin is a PhD graduate in Food Systems at the University of Vermont. She holds an MS in Food Systems from UVM and a BS in Food Literacy from the University of California at Berkeley. Her master’s thesis work focused on the daily experiences of food agency among low-income women of color. Previously, Caitlin worked as a community nutrition educator and freelance writer. She is interested in the intersection of ecological economics and food systems and plans to integrate the two transdisciplinary approaches with her research. In 2022, she will be joining Dr. Courtney Hammond-Wagner as a Research Social Scientist for USDA’s new Food Systems Research Center based at UVM.
Keywords: Justice and sustainability in food systems
Email: caitlin.b.morgan@uvm.edu
Kesha Fevrier (York)
Kesha is a PhD graduate at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. She has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies, a BA in Geography and a Diploma in Project Management. She has a worked in both the public and private sector in the areas of education (teaching), low income housing development, community development, public consultation, health research and environmental management and planning. While her professional experiences may seem non-linear, her greatest desire is to combine her knowledge and experience in these areas, to deliver initiatives that seek to improve the lives – environmentally, economically, socially and culturally – of the poor and marginalized in the global south. Currently, she works as Assistant Professor in Radical Black Ecologies at Queen’s University.
Keywords: Race, Waste, Value determination, Informal Livelihoods, Resilience
Email: kmfevrier@gmail.com
Stefano Menegat (McGill)
Stefano is a PhD graduate in Renewable Resources at McGill University. He received his master degree in Cooperation and Development (specialization in Environmental Economics) from the University of Turin in 2014, with a thesis on Alternative Food Networks in urban contexts. His research interests focus on the relationship between agri-food and socio-economic systems. Through the E4A program he aims to develop a new approach for the design of food policy for the Anthropocene.
Keywords: agri-food system, social metabolism, complexity sciences, ecological economics, modeling
Twitter:@uomo_macchina
Email:stefano.menegat@mail.mcgill.ca
Christopher Orr (McGill)
Christopher Orr is a PhD graduate in the Economics for the Anthropocene (E4A) project at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and is an Earth System Governance Research Fellow. His doctoral research focuses on understanding deep transformations in society-nature relationships and explores their dynamics in the context of Canadian climate change politics. He holds a B.Sc. in Physics and Environmental Science from the University of Toronto and an M.S. from McGill University. His Master’s research focused on the legitimacy of collaborative watershed governance in Quebec. He recently co-edited Liberty and the Ecological Crisis: Freedom on a Finite Planet.
Keywords: climate change, coevolution, critical realism, deep transformation, environmental sociology, uneconomic growth
Email: christopher.orr@mail.mcgill.ca
romain svartzman (mcgill)
Romain Svartzman completed his Ph.D. at McGill University, Canada. He works as an Economist for the French central bank, on climate-related risks and sustainable finance. His academic research aims to develop the field of ecological macroeconomics, at the crossroad between ecological economics and endogenous money approaches, including post-Keynesian and institutionalist perspectives. His work revolves around topics such as the assessment of the historical connections between energy systems and financial systems, the limitations of green finance, and the implications of a global ecological transition for the international monetary system. Prior to starting his Ph.D., Romain worked for the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank Group) as an environmental and social consultant (2012-2015), and as an investor in clean technologies for a French venture-capital firm (2007-2011). He also has experience in asset management, corporate social responsibility for the banking sector, and in the assessment of business regulations for small businesses (World Bank). Romain holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business (2007) and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), as well as a degree in Economics and Law of Climate Change from FLACSO Argentina (2015).
Keywords: monetary institutions, financial instability, socio-ecological systems, commons
Email: romain.svartzman@mail.mcgill.ca
jennifer gobby (mcgill)
Jen is an activist-scholar who works with folks in social movements and front line communities to do research that aims to contribute to social transformation. She completed a BA in Environment (minor Anthropology) from McGill in 2014 and her PhD in Renewable Resources, also from McGill in 2019, as part of the Economics for the Anthropocene partnership. Jen is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Concordia University in the Dept of Geography, Planning and Environment, under the supervision of Damon Matthews and Bengi Akbulut. She has two current participatory action research projects on the go – one is on decolonizing climate policy in Canada and the other is on transformative approaches to Covid-19 response in Montreal. She is a member of the steering committee of Concordia’s SHIFT Center for Social Transformation. The book based on her doctoral research being released by Fernwood Press in July 2020. She is the founder of the MudGirls Natural Building Collective and organizes with Climate Justice Montreal. Keywords: environmental justice, climate justice, social transformation, theories of change, Indigenous rights and resistance, movement-relevant research, climate policy.
Twitter: @jengobby1
Contact: jengobby@gmail.com
JOE AMENT (UVM)
Joe Ament is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. Joe’s current research seeks to operationalize the concept of social embeddedness in the context of small- and medium-sized farms in Vermont. Drawing from ecological economics, economic sociology, and anthropology, Joe’s work measures the complex social, cultural, and place-based interactions that take place in our food systems.
Joe completed a Ph.D. in Natural Resources at UVM in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Joshua Farley (UVM). Joe’s doctoral research focused on ecological macroeconomics with a specific emphasis on monetary theory in the context of social and ecological justice. Alongside his Postdoctoral work, Joe’s research considers macroeconomic policy through the lens of ecological monetary theory, including public banking, monetary policy, and fiscal policy.
PDF CV
Keywords: monetary theory, rent theory, monetary policy, public money, ecological economics
Contact: joseph.ament@uvm.edu
James Arruda (York)
James has an undergraduate degree in economics from Concordia University, Montreal and has graduated with a Masters in Environmental Studies (MES) at York University. His interest lies in Ecological Economics and Indigenous knowledge. As a scholar in the E4A program, he wishes to push the barriers of Ecological Economics as a dynamic, inclusive and interdisciplinary field of study.
Contact: jamesmarruda@gmail.co
Douglas Baxter (York)
Douglas has a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies at York University. He has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies also from York. His area of interest revolves around relationships between firm efficiency, profitability and sustainability in a changing ecological system. Douglas was born and raised on the beautiful island of Jamaica where he lived until the age of 14 before moving to Canada. Unsure of what he wanted to study, he dabbled in anthropology and economics, eventually settling on environmental studies. He enjoys learning about human interaction with the environment, and challenges himself to think of ways to improve our grim environmental situation worldwide. His second area of study would have been anthropology as he is interested in human life and culture. In his spare time, Douglas enjoys playing sports, reading, and attending basketball games and concerts.
Keywords: consumerism, business, corporate-responsibility, economics, profit.
Contact: dougb5@my.yorku.ca
Matthew Burke (McGill)
Matthew Burke is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont, in collaboration with the Leadership for the Ecozoic project. Matthew’s current research aims to examine and support successful integration of renewable energy development and protection and preservation of ecological and agricultural functions of working landscapes across multiple scales.Matthew completed a Ph.D. in Renewable Resources — Environment (May 2019) at McGill University under the supervision of Professors Peter G. Brown (McGill University) and Jennie C. Stephens (Northeastern University). Matthew’s doctoral research focused on sociopolitical and ecological dimensions of the renewable energy transition by examining energy democracy in theory and practice, emphasizing groups active in northeastern North America.
Keywords: energy democracy, renewable energy transition, social movements, energy-ecosystem nexus, energy ethics
Contact: Matthew.Burke@uvm.edu
Molly Fremes (York)
Molly graduated with a Masters in Environmental Studies (MES) from York University in September 2019. Her research was an intersectional approach to supporting socially and ecologically sustainable food systems, tying together political agroecology, ecological economics, privilege/positionality, community organizing and traditional knowledge systems. She is now a project officer at Evergreen in Toronto with the Future Cities program. Her past experiences have included urban agriculture in Shanghai, “open-knowledge” research in Ecuador and cooperative farming in Cuba. She is an active organizer in several Toronto sharing economy and resources distribution projects. In her natural habitat, Molly is most often found at the centre of epic dance parties, surrounded by books she aspires to read, or in the garden.
Keywords: political agroecology, ecological economics, food sovereignty, community resilience, power & privilege.
Contact: mfremes@yorku.ca
Caleb Gingrich Regehr (McGill)
Caleb recently graduated from McGill with a Masters of Science in Natural Resources. Caleb’s research was on the carbon cost of the necessary global transition to a low-carbon socially-just energy system. His work began with assessments of previously published plans for a global renewable energy system and incorporates life cycle assessment data of energy technologies to estimate the carbon emissions required to build a new energy system. He also holds a BASc from University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering. He has studied agroecology and worked on an organic vegetable farm. He has studied corporate sustainability movements (Fair Trade, Cradle to Cradle) and the institutional barriers to environmental sustainability created by current firm structures. He currently works at the Waterloo Region District School Board as the Supervisor of Energy Conservation, coordinating the program that will allow the school board to meet its goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2029
Keywords: renewable energy; energy transition; life cycle assessment; energy system; feasibility
Contact: caleb.gingrich@mail.mcgill.ca
Alicia Richins (York)
Alicia Richins is a recent graduate of York University’s Master in Environmental Studies, Planning Concentration, pursuing a career in ecological sustainability, international development and planning and policy-making. In her graduate research, she applied the framework of ecological economics to the practice of planning in the Global South, with emphasis on the Caribbean and Latin America. This research culminated in a Major Paper and system-dynamics model (STELLA) focused on Caribbean sustainable development prospects. Her other research and non-research interests include systems-thinking, complexity science/economics, climate adaptation and resilience, renewable energy, co-operative business, postcoloniality, culture and the arts. As a proud dual citizen of Canada and Trinidad & Tobago, Alicia defines her personal mission as the advancement of the work of sustainable development through the design and management of projects and policies to secure resilient futures for all.
Email: amrich@my.yorku.ca
Courtney HammondWagner (UVM)
Courtney is a Ph.D. at the Rubenstein School and a fellow in the Gund Institute’s Economics for the Anthropocene program. Her interests lie in complex Social-Ecological systems and in water systems in particular. Courtney’s research focuses on the interaction between ecosystem resilience and the institutional arrangements and policy governing water allocation. Courtney grew up in the Pacific Northwest and received her bachelor’s in Psychology from Dartmouth College. Following graduation, Courtney worked as a research associate in at ecology lab at Dartmouth, spent two summer field seasons in Greenland investigating Arctic soil carbon storage, and worked as a community outreach coordinator for a science consortium in Barrow, AK. Prior to starting her doctoral studies at UVM, Courtney was an Energy Efficiency Consultant with Navigant Consulting, where she researched and evaluated energy efficiency programs.
Contact: courtney.hammond@uvm.edu
Emery Hartley (McGill)
Emery Hartley has a Master’s degree with the Economics for the Anthropocene partnership at McGill University. He has a BSc Environment from McGill with a focus on Biodiversity and Conservation. After his undergraduate degree, he returned to coastal British Columbia to work for a small environmental NGO. As a campaigner for the Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Emery worked on a range of conservation issues with the goal of protecting old-growth temperate rainforest of Clayoquot Sound. He was privileged to work with local First Nations on issues including a campaign against mining and forest conservation actions. His work at E4A focuses on governance systems for the Anthropocene, specifically, he is curious about what governance in indigenous communities can teach us about governing for a place. Keywords: corporate mapping, power mapping, decolonization
Twitter: @hartley_emery
Contact: emeryhartley@gmail.com
anna kusmer (mcggill)
Anna is a freelance writer and a radio journalist based in Boston with a specialty in environment, science and health. She is interested in environmental justice and how landscapes interact with issues of identity and equity. Anna is also interested in how culture shapes narratives about who and what landscapes and health systems are for. She has worked in radio news at WGBH in Boston and KQED in San Francisco. She was a 2017 AAAS Mass Media Fellow at KQED Science. Anna has a Master of science degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada where she studied ecology and sustainability. She believes stories can change the world.
Twitter: @ASKusmer
Contact: anna.kusmer@mail.mcgill.ca
Sophia Sanniti (York)
Sophia is currently pursuing a PhD in Ecological and Social Sustainability at the University of Waterloo. Her work employs a critical ecofeminist frame to problematize some of the gendered assumptions in ecological economics research and policy proposals. Sophia is particularly interested in exploring the implications of a degrowth imperative for Canadian care workers in the household. She holds a B.E.S. from UWaterloo in Environment and Business studies, and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University which she completed in partnership with E4A and CUSP.
Keywords: environmental psychology; human-nature relations; behavioural economics; cultural anthropology; radical political ecology.
Twitter: @sophiesanniti
LinkedIn: sophiasanniti
Co-founder of blog on social marketing: I CTRL SHIF
Contact: srsanniti@gmail.com
Phoebe Spencer (UVM)
Phoebe Spencer is a PhD graduate from UVM. Her studies focussed on issues of gender equity in economic systems, including the disconnect between the neoclassical economic paradigm and justice. In the fall of 2014, Phoebe completed an internship with the United Nations Statistics Division working on the World’s Women 2015 report. At UVM, Phoebe completed a Graduate Certificate in Ecological Economics in 2015, her MS in Community Development and Applied Economics in 2013, and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Transportation Systems and Mobility in 2012. She completed her BA (Joint Honours) at McGill University in 2011 in Anthropology and Geography with a minor in Hispanic Languages. Phoebe is currently working as a Spatial Econometrician at World Bank Group in Washington, DC.
Twitter: @phoobsey Contact: pspencer@uvm.edu
Michael Wironen (UVM)
Michael Wironen is currently a Senior Scientist for Agriculture & Food Systems at The Nature Conservancy. Michael completed his PhD in Natural Resources at the Gund Institute at UVM as part of the E4A program. He also received a Graduate Certificate in Ecological Economics. Michael’s research explores decision-making in the management of water resources, environmental flows, and food systems at different scales. Prior to joining UVM, Michael worked as a senior sustainability specialist at an international environmental consulting firm. He helped private and public sector clients integrate sustainability best practices into development projects and large-scale master planning and regional planning initiativesIn addition to his PhD from UVM, he holds a Masters in Sustainability Science from Lund University in Lund, Sweden and a Bachelor’s in Physical Geography from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Keywords: phosphorus, food systems, deliberative democracy, environmental change, governance and policy.
Contact: mwironen@uvm.edu