Organized Oral Session
Career Track
Public-Private Sector
Robert Dyball
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Diele Lobo
University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States
This session presents research approaches and practices that underscore the imperative for ecologists to engage with diverse communities and collaborate across disciplinary backgrounds, knowledges, and practices. It focuses on research approaches and practices responsive to the on-the-ground needs of policy and decision-makers. Speakers will present case examples of diverse ways of forging collaborative partnerships with different communities. The first speaker focuses on Indigenous-academic collaborations, distinguishing between wisdom and knowledge in generating scientific advances and their practical applications. It will present case examples that demonstrate that collaborations that integrate academic, indigenous, and other perspectives are often particularly useful in guiding actions by indigenous communities that face a rapidly changing world. The second speaker reports on participatory action research (PAR) in the context of civic agriculture, in which farms and local food systems are part of a community's social and economic development. Three case studies draw out the tensions and complementarities of two theoretical frameworks — political economy and community economies — to outline a theoretically-informed research agenda for PAR-informed civic agriculture, so that its promises of a more just and sustainable agrifood system can be realized. The third speaker focuses on the complexity of food systems as they intersect with community, policy and sovereignty. Case examples in this talk will demonstrate the importance of outreach to communities and the role extension plays in developing equitable food systems. The fourth presentation reports on a collaborative research program in beekeeping and maple syrup production that provides undergraduate training in transdisciplinary, knowledge-with-action, stakeholder-driven research. The fifth presentation focuses on how the need for public engagement with science and nature requires that sources within and outside of academia provide greater support for training, create avenues to make community connections, and draw attention to ecologists’ public engagement trajectories, analogous to the ways that academia supports ecologists’ research trajectories. Case examples show that strategic “boosters” for such support have been forged, but need broad support from within and outside of universities. The final speaker will provide a progress report on an initiative of the Human Ecology section of ESA to forge collaborative partnerships with local alternative farming groups in the Portland region. This initiative is intended to leave some legacy of value in those local communities that host ESA conferences. The research approaches and case examples are designed to help further ESA’s commitment to interacting with local communities and strengthen its efforts in engagement, diversity, and inclusion.
Presenting Author: F Stuart Chapin, III – University of Alaska Fairbanks
Co-author: Frank K. Lake, Ph.D. – USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station
Co-author: Patricia Cochran, Indigenous Cultural specialist – Alaska Native Science Commission
Co-author: Brendan Flack, Māori Iwi (tribal) resource specialist – East Otago Taiāpure Management Committee
Co-author: Christopher Hepburn, Marine ecologist and cultural liaison – University of Otago
Presenting Author: Ryan E. Galt, PhD – University of California Davis
Presenting Author: Jahi Chappell – Michigan State University
Presenting Author: Kourtney K. Collum – College of the Atlantic
Presenting Author: Nalini Nadkarni – University of Utah
Presenting Author: Diele Lobo – University of Minnesota
Co-author: Melissa A. Kenney – Institute on The Environment/University of Minnesota
Co-author: Heidi Roop – University of Minnesota
Co-author: Elissa Welch – Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
Co-author: Lucinda Johnson – university of minnesota duluth
Co-author: Jessica Hellmann, PhD – University of Minnesota