Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
Biology Seminar Series: Dr. Valerie Berseth
March 10, 2023 at 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM
| Location: | 4440Q Carleton Technology and Training Centre |
| Cost: | Free |
| Audience: | Anyone |
Title: Wildlife conservation through a social science lens: What are we conserving, and why?
Dr. Valerie Berseth
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Carleton University
Friday, March 1
0 at 2:30 p.m., CTTC 4440Q
Coffee will be available at 2:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome!
Abstract:
Wildlife conservation is an urgent global priority. To respond to increasing biodiversity loss and accelerating climate change, Canada and many other UN-member nations has committed to ‘30 x 30’ – conserving 30% of conserve at least 30 per cent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. Meeting this goal requires expertise from the biological and social sciences, but there remains much work to be done in bridging gaps between these fields through inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary research.
In this talk I will reflect on my experiences as a sociologist working in very biology-dominated spaces of salmon conservation. My talk will be guided by the question, ‘What are we conserving, and why?’ I will draw on research findings from a 5-year study of Pacific salmon conservation to provide some answers to this question, but my goal will be to raise further questions about how academics from different disciplinary backgrounds engage with the “natural” world, how we can engage with each other, and how interdisciplinary research can help effect societal change at scales needed to deal with complex environmental problems.
Bio:
Valerie Berseth is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. She completed her doctoral research in Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research interests include environmental politics, climate adaptation, and perceptions of risk related to human interventions into nature. She has conducted research in a wide range of contexts, including Pacific salmon, forestry, climate adaptation, social movements, and genomic science. Outside of academia, she is an amateur mycologist and birdwatcher who lives in Montreal with her partner and cat Thor.