In Common

This insight episode comes from full episode 051, Michael's conversation with Beatriz Dos Santos Dias.  Beatriz is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Beatriz was part of the Modelling and Stock Assessment of Prince William Sound Herring in the Gulf of Alaska, and she is currently exploring the effects of regime shifts in the...

In this episode, Hita spoke with Aditya Ramesh, Presidential Fellow of Environmental History at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. They spoke about disease ecologies, the epistemes of disease, and its links with urban planning. In the process they also discussed the changing ideas of what constitutes an archive and what that means for upcoming scholars who engage with environmenta...

In this episode Michael speaks with Dr. Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, a professor in the department of tropical plant and soil sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Noa’s specialty areas include biogeochemistry, ethnography, and archaeology of traditional farming methods. Noa tells Michael about his work on Hawaiian farming systems and the Hawaiian concept of Kuleana as a combination of both a rig...

Frank van Laerhoven is speaking with Maurice Paulissen. Is it a historian? Is it an ecologist? No, it is a landscape historian! Maurice is one of the many commons scholars that cannot be easily categorized by means of a disciplinary label. He is also an exponent of a long tradition within our domain of researchers for whom “going to the field” means “going to an archive” and that manage to reconst...

In this episode, Stefan interviews Achim Schlüter. Achim is a Professor of Social Systems & Ecological Economics at Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany. He is also the Social Science Department leader and head of the Institutional and Behavioral Economics working group at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT). He has interests in processes of institutional development and change,...

This insight episode is from full episode 048, Stefan's conversation with Irina Rafliana.  Irina is a science communication officer at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), and is also currently a PhD candidate at the German Development Institute in Bonn, Germany, where her research is focused on disaster sociology.  In this episode, Irina discusses the importance of language with Stefan in...

In this episode, Michael speaks with Simon Levin, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. Simon is a giant in the field of ecology, and in the last several decades his work has extended to the study of the social-ecological systems, cooperation, and the governance of the commons. His work in this area includes the book Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons, wh...

This insight episode is from full episode eight, Michael and Stefan's conversation with Helen Rozwadowski.  Helen is a professor of History and founder of the Maritime Studies program at the University of Connecticut, and has written multiple books on the history of the ocean. In this episode, Helen discusses the idea of the ocean as a mirror, reflecting our personal biases and ideas back to us. S...

In this episode Hita spoke with Prof. Mahesh Rangarajan, Vice Chancellor of Krea University, India and a Professor of History and Environmental Studies at the University. They discussed what it means to be a historian, the importance of intellectual exchange and cooperation across different stages of career, and the environmental history of large charismatic mammals in south Asia. Some non-English...

This insight episode is from episode 041, Michael's interview with Chris Weible.  Chris is a professor at the school of public affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver, as well as the director of his school's PhD program, and a co-director with Tanya Heikkila of the Workshop on Policy Process Research (WOPPR).  In this insight episode, Chris talks with Michael about the evolution of the field...

In this episode, Michael speaks with Hallie Eakin, a professor in the School of Sustainability, College of Global Futures at Arizona State University. They discuss Hallie’s research on social adaptation and vulnerability in Mexico, Latin America, and the American Southwest.  Hallie’s website: https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/hallie-eakin/ Website for the megadapt project: http://me...

This insight episode is from episode 041, Michael and Courtney's interview with Cassandra Brooks.  Cassandra is an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Prior to joining CU Boulder, Cassandra was a core member of The Last Ocean, a grand-scale media project focused on the Ross Sea, and her efforts helped lead to the adoption of the world's largest mari...

In this episode, Michael talks with Mark Moritz, professor of anthropology at the Ohio State University. They discuss Mark’s work on “open” property regimes in pastoralist systems around the world, and in particular in Cameroon where Mark has conducted extensive fieldwork. Mark describes his interpretation of open property regimes as an adaptation to resource scarcity and variability in pastoralis...

This insight episode is from episode 002, Michael and Stefan's interview with Emma McKinley.    Emma is a Research Fellow at Cardiff University and co-founder of the Marine Social Science Network.    In this insight episode, Emma talks with Michael and Stefan about the creation of the Marine Social Science Network and the growing pains of facilitating greater interdisciplinary work.    The Marine...

In this episode, Michael spoke with Daniel Decaro, associate professor at the University of Louisville with a joint appointment in the Department of Urban and Public Affairs and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Daniel has conducted experimental research on the effects of participation and enforcement on collective-action. Based on this work, he has developed the concept of parti...

In this end-of-the-year episode, Courtney, Mike, Michael and Stefan sat down to recap the year, talking about their favorite reads and favorite listens, fieldwork done and not done, and interesting work done on non-traditional commons. References: Chambers, J. M., et al. (2021). Six modes of co-production for sustainability. Nature Sustainability, 4(11), 983–996. Christakis, N. A. (2019). Blueprin...

In this episode, Divya spoke with Aparajita Datta, a senior scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation, a non-governmental research organization based in Bangalore, India. Aparajita is known for her work on community-based hornbill conservation in the northeastern part of India. Her main research interests include plant-animal interactions in rainforests, understanding anthropogenic effects o...

In this episode, Michael spoke with Nejem Raheem. Nejem is an associate professor of economics at Emerson College. They talked about Nejem’s work on ecosystem services and how he applied this framework to the traditional acequia irrigation systems of New Mexico. They discussed several important challenges that this approach faces, such as the incommensurability of different values and the downplay...

In this episode, Hita and Nusrat Molla, were joined by Ramya Ravi, Ph. D scholar at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru.  We reflected on the previous episodes of this series through the perspective of early career scholars, and spoke a bit about reading across disciplines, challenging established ecological or social principles in interdisciplinary research...

In this episode, Michael and Stefan spoke with Arun Agrawal, the Samuel Trask Dana Professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. Arun has played an important role in the development of the Commons field and the study of the related subjects of conservation and development. They talked about Arun's path to an academic career, his thoughts about the histor...

In this episode, Michael spoke with Courtney Carothers, a professor in the college of Fisheries and Oceans at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They discussed Courtney’s work on "catch share", or individual transferable quota policies in fisheries, indigenous fisheries management systems, and the negative impacts that catch shares have often had on indigenous fishers. Catch shares are a dominant...

In this episode, Stefan interviews Guido Caniglia. Guido is the Scientific Director of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Austria. Guido’s work aims to shape epistemological and theoretical frameworks that contribute to ongoing scientific developments. Guido has worked in different scientific fields, from evolutionary-developmental biology to sustainability science...

In this episode, Michael spoke with Derek Kauneckis, an associate professor at the Desert Research institute in Nevada. Derek spoke with Michael about his work on the waste commons as well as technological innovation, particularly with respect to water management. Throughout the program, Derek discussed the relevance of the commons literature in studying the complex, hyper-managed systems that he...

In this episode, Hita, Maria and Dane were joined by Malini Ranganathan, the Faculty Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center and an Associate Professor in the School of International Service at American University. We talked about her journey towards interdisciplinary research, and then discussed how aspects of positionality--like gender and race--influences interdisciplinary researc...

In this episode Michael spoke with Hillary Angelo, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Hillary is an historical sociologist who focuses on the relationship between the environment and large-scale transformations in urban contexts. They discussed Hillary's recent book "How Green Became Good: Urbanized Nature and the Making of Cities and Citizens." Hillary's website...