Dr Karen Mcnamara
Senior Lecturer
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
The University of Queensland
Australia
Biography
A graduate of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Karen holds a Bachelor of Environmental Science (Hons I; 2001) and a PhD in Geography (2006). Her PhD explored the politics of 'environmental refugee' protection at the United Nations, drawing specifically on the impacts of climate change on Pacific small island states. Karen has held positions with the NSW Government, as a lecturer at UNSW, and post-doctoral researcher and then senior research fellow at James Cook University where she worked on projects in the Wet Tropics, Torres Strait, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. More recently, Karen was a research consultant at the University of the South Pacific and worked in numerous countries and communities in the region (Cook Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu). Karen has consulted for UNDP and UNESCO.
Research Interest
• Maxwell Boykoff Environmental governance, science and policy interactions, political economy and the environment. • • Amanda Carrico Behavioral dimensions of climate change mitigation and adaptation; technology adoption and use; Environmental Psychology; common pool resource management; risk perceptions.
