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Lindsay Galbraith, MA

PhD Candidate, Darwin College

My current doctoral research considers how the idea of climate change is mobilised (or not) through large project planning events to better understand contested areas of policy.

Biography

My work focuses on environmental and aboriginal governance in Canada. Prior to starting my PhD in 2009, I was employed as an environmental planner in Vancouver, Canada, working mainly on natural resource and energy projects affecting rural communities in western and northern Canada and Alaska. I also undertook a research-based MA considering impact and benefit agreements negotiated between First Nations and industry alongside the environmental impact assessments for diamond mines in Northwest Territories, Canada.

My current doctoral research considers how the idea of climate change is mobilised or immobilised through large project planning events to better understand contested areas of policy. In many areas of the world, aboriginal title and renewable energy can be highly contested areas of policy. In Canada, this is most evident in the Province of British Columbia (i.e. 2004 Haida v. B.C. decision; 2007 Energy Plan).

Siting large developments that can constitute political actors and generate policy-relevant knowledge. This project draws upon knowledge produced in the environmental assessment process for the NaiKun offshore wind project proposed for the north coast of British Columbia, within the territory of the Haida Nation. I am particularly interested in how climate change is understood as both a translocal and a place-rooted idea where discourses of sustainability and climate change come into conflict in relation to this project. I will trace the way knowledge travels from place to place or is derived from Haida Gwaii in order to elaborate upon these notions and these contested policy areas.

Qualifications

• PhD Candidate in Geography (2009 to present), University of Cambridge
• MA in Geography (2005), Simon Fraser University
• BA in Visual Arts and Sociology (2002), University of Western Ontario

Publications

Selected publications

• Galbraith, L. (2008). Review of Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment, by John Glasson, Riki Therivel and Andrew Chadwick (The Natural and Built Environment Series). Environmental Politics 15 (February).
• Galbraith, L., B. Bradshaw and M. Rutherford. (2007) "Towards a New Supraregulatory Approach to Environmental Assessment in Northern Canada", Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal 25(2): 27-41.

Selected conferences and seminars

• Galbraith, L. (2011) Revealing incompatible policy agendas through one energy planning controversy. Paper presented at the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute for British Geographers Annual International Conference, London, UK. Presenter, co-organizer and co-chair for session with J. Affolderbach, Environmental controversies and policy change: Ideas, knowledge, and discourse.
• Galbraith, L. (2011) Climate change, self-sufficiency, and place: Planning for offshore wind in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers, Seattle, WA.
• Galbraith, L. (2011) A case for 'repatriating' research: A review of environmental governance literature on Haida Gwaii. Paper presented at the Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC.
• Galbraith, L. (2010) Energy policy changes and the rise of climate change: tracing policy through story-lines. Invited to present paper at GreenBRIDGE workshop at Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities (CRASSH) at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
• Galbraith, L. (2010) Policy Networks and Discourse in Energy Planning. Presented at the Royal Geographical Society with the
  Institute for British Geographers Annual International Conference, London, UK. Presenter, co-organizer and co-chair for session with J. Affolderbach, Participation in Environmental Policy and Planning: Exploring Methodological Research Problems.
• Galbraith, L. and B. Bradshaw. (2005) Towards a Supraregulatory Approach for Environmental Assessment in the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada. Paper presented at the International Association of Impact Assessment, Boston, MA.
• Galbraith, L. and B. Bradshaw. (2005) Understanding the Need for Supraregulatory Agreements in Environmental Assessment: A Case from the Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories. Paper presented at the Canadian Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, London, ON.

Teaching

• Invited guest lecturer for Geography 319: Environmental Impact Assessment at the University of British Columbia, March 11, 2011. Lecture entitled, "Policy Change and Environmental Impact Assessment".
• Supervisor for The Human Geography of Arctic Regions (focus on Canada), third-year / Part II (2010), Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• Demonstrator for Geographical Skills and Methods (Questionnaires and Interviews), second-year / Part IB (2010), Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• Teaching Assistant (third-year Human Ecology and Political Geography courses), Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University (2003-2005).
• Invited guest lecturer for various university undergraduate and graduate courses (2005-2008).

External activities

• President, Cambridge Canadian Club
• Co-convener, Geography Graduate Seminar Series
• Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia (2011)
• Member of the Association of American Geographers, Canadian Association of Geographers, and Royal Geographical Society with the Institute for British Geographers
• Coordinator for Darwin Yoga Society, volunteer with Growing Spaces (part of Transition Cambridge)
• Member of Graduate Student-Staff Consultative Committee (2010)