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  • Max Liboiron | FOCI

    Max Liboiron Lead (WP4) Max Liboiron is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Memorial University. A leader in interdisciplinary research, Liboiron’s community-based environmental monitoring projects have been funded by Northern and Indian Affairs (Northern Contaminants Program), SSHRC, MEOPAR, and ArcticNet, among others. Liboiron writes in both social and natural science forums as well as inventing scientific hardware and protocols for both plastic pollution monitoring and humble lab cultures. Liboiron has been an expert witness for the House of Commons and has worked with the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board (MMSB), 5 Gyres Institute, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), and the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) as an expert on plastic pollution.

  • Work Package 7 | FOCI

    BUILDING RESILIENT COASTAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE (WP7) FOCI’s Work Package on ‘Building Resilient Coastal Communities through Social and Community Enterprise’ examines challenges and opportunities of regenerating and enhancing the resilience of remote and rural coastal communities in the face of climate, ocean and social-ecological change through social enterprises. Social enterprises are organizational infrastructures that draw on commercial activities to address social and environmental goals. This Work Package draws on a new heuristic model, called PLACE : P romote community leaders, Li nk divergent perspectives, A mplify local capacities and assests, C onvey compelling stories, and E ngage both/and thinking . Building on a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant that examined the Shorefast Foundation, a charitable organization that operates and supports social businesses on Fogo Island, the PLACE Model emphasizes the power of place-based social enterprises for contributing to more inclusive, economically diverse and culturally resilient coastal communities and infrastructure. MEET THE TEAM Natalie Slawinski Lead Mark Stoddart Co-Investigator Thomas Cooper Co-Investigator Kelly Vodden Co-Investigator Wendy Smith Co-Investigator Blair Winsor Co-Investigator Alex Stewart Co-Investigator HIGHLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL (HQP) Marie Louise Aastrup Postdoctoral Fellow 2022-23 Sarah Langer-Smith Research Assistant 2020-22 Ario Seto Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-24 Jennifer Nicole Brenton Doctoral Candidate Alumni Nancy Leung Research Assistant 2024 Bruna Souza de Brito Research Assistant 2022-23 Jennifer Charles Research Assistant 2022 Brennan Lowery Postdoctoral Fellow 2020-21 Ismael Golmohammadi Postdoctoral Fellow 2024-25 (Position Complete) Pedram Pouragasari Doctoral Student 2021-22 OUR PARTNERS

  • Alex Stewart

    Alex Stewart Co-investigator (WP7) Co-investigator Alex Stewart has experience with ethnographic methods (e.g., Stewart,1998, The Ethnographer’s Method, Sage Publications) and ethnographic research (e.g., Stewart, 1989, Team Entrepreneurship, Sage Publications, 1989). He also has extensive experience applying social anthropological theory and ethnographic findings (e.g., Stewart, 2015, Academy of Management Perspectives and Stewart, 1990, Organization Science). With PI Natalie Slawinski, he participated in the “Telling a New Rural Story: Mobilizing Assets for Vibrant Communities” conference in Norris Point, NL, and presented a photographic interpretation of the PLACE model. ( https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/pov-mallary-mcgrath-telling-new-storyvibrant- communities-1.5155413 shows both Slawinski and Stewart in the third photo.) Within the last 12 months, he has made 18 photo-ethnographic visits to rural Newfoundland. He has worked recurrently with nine community organizations on the Bonavista Peninsula. This fieldwork is in the territory of the Discovery Aspiring Geopark (DAG), and he has provided 156 photographs of sites requested by the DAG effort. In conjunction with community leaders, artists, and crafts people, he is working to develop interactive ways for community members to express their visions of the environment (physical, social, cultural, and historical) and the ways people create value based on ties to this environment.

  • Peter Kikkert

    Peter Kikkert Co-investigator (WP3) Dr. Peter Kikkert is the Irving Shipbuilding Chair in Arctic Policy and an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government, St. Francis Xavier University. Dr. Kikkert's research focuses on how to strengthen search and rescue (SAR), emergency management, and disaster response capabilities and bolster community disaster resilience in remote, isolated, northern, and coastal communities. In particular, his work focuses on the roles, responsibilities, and capabilities of the community-based organizations involved in SAR and emergency response (e.g. Coast Guard Auxiliary, volunteer SAR teams, Canadian Rangers), and how to better incorporate these groups into broader SAR and emergency management plans and policies. In pursuing this research program, Dr. Kikkert works extensively with northern communities, community-based organizations, and with the federal, territorial, and municipal agencies involved in public safety, SAR, and emergency management. Dr. Kikkert is involved in Work Package 3 “Search and Rescue in Remote Regions”.

  • Yixi Yang

    Memorial University Yixi Yang Research Assistant (WP6) Yixi Yang is a Ph.D. candidate at Sociology department, Memorial University. She is a research assistant with FOCI IWP6 Perceptions of Climate Change and Social Futures. Her research interests include public perceptions of climate change, climate change discourse, environmental politics and governance, public participation in environmental governance, and social network analysis.

  • Cindy Marven

    Memorial University Cindy Marven Community of Practice Engagement Coordinator (IWP2) Cindy holds a MSc (Geography) from the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, where her research interests centred around marine risk and spatial statistical analysis to support search and rescue planning. Her interest in risk broadened to include risk communication and since 2017, she has coordinated the Coast and Ocean Risk Communication Community of Practice ( CORC CoP ), initiated by MEOPAR (the Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response) Network, that focuses on bringing practitioners and researchers together from academia, government, industry, and the private sector to address the challenges of communicating risks of coastal and marine hazards, many of which are exacerbated by climate change.

  • Jennifer Charles

    Memorial University Jennifer Charles Research Assistant (WP7) More to come.

  • Diana Burbano

    Grenfell Campus, Memorial University Diana Burbano Postdoctoral Fellow (WP5) Diana Burbano obtained a Master’s in Ecology from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, and a doctoral degree from the Department of Geography at McGill University, Canada. She was a post-doctoral fellow with the Ocean Frontier Institute at Dalhousie University’s Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Memorial University. Her work focuses on understanding the human dimensions of biodiversity conservation. Diana has engaged in interdisciplinary projects across various regions of Ecuador. For the past 16 years, Diana has worked on issues related to small-scale fisheries and the interaction between tourism, biodiversity conservation, and resource-based livelihoods (fisheries and farming) in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. In the last three years, she has concentrated on the human dimensions of marine conservation in Atlantic Canada and Brittany, France. Using case study research and a mixed-methods approach, Diana investigates stakeholders’ attitudes and perceptions of marine conservation, evidence-based decision-making, public participation in consultation processes, collaborative governance, management and conservation of marine protected areas (MPAs), environmental justice, and social equity.

  • Jerry McIntosh

    Jerry McIntosh Collaborator (IWP4) Jerry McIntosh is founder and president of McIntosh Media, a Canadian film and television production and consulting company. McIntosh is a Producer, Director, Videographer and Editor of independent media productions for a variety of clients. Previously, McIntosh was Director of Independent Documentaries at CBC Television and launched the award-winning independent documentary series Rough Cuts, supervised the launch of The Lens, expanded the series The Passionate Eye, and contributed to the successful launch of the Canadian Documentary Channel.

  • Desai Shan

    Desai Shan Co-investigator (WP1, WP8) Desau Shan is a Assistant Professor, Division of Population Health and Applied Health Studies, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Desai is a dedicated researcher in occupational health and safety (OHS), she has published more than 40 research articles, book chapters and research reports on Canadian and international seafarers’ rights to occupational health and safety. She has been awarded/co-awarded 17 research grants from international and Canadian funding agencies. She contributes her knowledge to the Canadian National Seafarer’s Welfare Board as a maritime health and law expert. Between 2022 and 2023, she was appointed as the research expert by Transport Canada to draft a federal government report, Fatigue in the Maritime Sector 2023 , which contains the first baseline study of workplace fatigue levels among Canadian seafarers. In 2022, she was appointed as an international labour law expert by the International Labour Organization to draft a flagship report: Occupational Safety and Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Legal Analysis of China.

  • Mark Stoddart | FOCI

    Mark Stoddart Lead (IWP3), Co-investigator (WP2, WP6, WP7) Professor Stoddart has worked in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University since 2010. His major areas of research, graduate supervision, and teaching expertise are environmental sociology, political sociology and social movements, and communications and culture. Within the FOCI team, he is Co-lead of IWP3, and Co-Investigator on WP2, WP6, and WP7. He brings a range of expertise relevant to these work packages. First, he was a Co-Investigator on the SSHRC-supported project, Perceiving Climate Variability: A Community-based Study to Identify Frameworks for Understanding and Interpretation. This project, led by Joel Finnis, is directly related to WP2. Second, he is co-lead of the SSHRC-supported Canadian team of COMPON (COMParing climate change POlicy Networks). This is a large international comparative project that examines climate change media discourse and policy networks. This project includes an established working relationship with collaborator Tuomas Ylä-Antilla (Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, University of Helsinki) and is directly related to WP6. Third, he is a Co-Investigator on the SSHRC-supported project Perceptions of Change in Atlantic Canadian Cities. This project, led by Howard Ramos, included a focus on public perceptions of ecological change and is also directly related to WP6. Fourth, he is a Research Collaborator on the SSHRC-supported project, Building Resilient Rural Communities through Social Entrepreneurship: Lessons from the Shorefast Foundation on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. This project, led by Natalie Slawinski, is directly related to WP7. Fifth, Professor Stoddart has been a member of Sustainable Canada Dialogues since 2014, including serving roles as a core member of the Outreach Working Group and Scientific Committee. This experience directly relates to IWP3. Professor Stoddart’s research has appeared in a range of high-impact international and national interdisciplinary and sociological journals, including: Global Environmental Change, Energy Research & Social Science, Organization & Environment, Journal of Environmental Science & Policy, Environmental Politics, and Environmental Communication. He is co-author of the recent book Industrial Development and Eco-Tourisms: Can Oil Extraction and Nature Conservation Co-Exist.

We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.

To learn more about Memorial University's Strategic Framework for Indigenization please visit the Office of Indigenous Affairs.

Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures is administered in partnership by the St. John’s and Grenfell Campuses of Memorial University 

Research funding was provided by the Ocean Frontier Institute, through an award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

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