Climate Change & Climate Hazards
We study the complex lived realities of changing climatic conditions and extreme weather events. Our work focuses heavily on community resilience and local adaptation strategies. We examine how different communities experience climate hazards and how they recover from them.
Community Engaged Research
We are deeply committed to community engagement. We do not just study communities from afar. We actively partner with local people and community-based organizations to design and conduct our studies. This collaborative approach ensures our research questions are relevant to the people most affected. It also positions our findings to provide direct, practical benefits to our community partners.
Gender & Social Inequity
Environmental impacts do not affect everyone equally. We examine how gender, class, culture, and other social factors shape the experience of climate hazards in different communities—rural, urban, and Indigenous.. Our research highlights the voices of those most often marginalized in environmental planning and disaster response.
Rural Communities, Agriculture, & Food
Drought, flooding, and grassfires directly affect agricultural producers’ livelihood and wellbeing, and rural municipalities are on the front lines of climate disaster response. Rural people and agricultural producers have developed strong adaptive capacity to climate hazards and extremes, and they have important knowledge to share. Our team has conducted hundreds of qualitative interviews and focus groups with farmers, ranchers, and rural residents to understand their experiences and, perhaps most importantly, their solutions.
Research Methodology
Our team has expertise in a variety of social research methods, especially qualitative and participatory research techniques. We have additional experience with survey design, Delphi method, and photographic, visual, and/or arts-based methods. Our interdisciplinary team includes a range of fields, including history, education, geography, gender studies, and psychology. We are always ready to collaborate with community groups, governments, or other organizations to design rigorous research studies that meet their needs.
