Research

With a focus on biodiversity protection, the goal of my research is to explore the political economy of the most pressing environmental problems and their solutions.

My first book, Conserving the Oceans: The Politics of Large Marine Protected Areas (2021), documents the efforts of activists and states to increase the pace and scale of marine protections, leading to a paradigm shift in how states conserve marine biodiversity. Through a domestic political economy analysis, the book explains how states have protected millions of square kilometers of ocean space while remaining highly responsive to the interests of businesses. From the commercial fishing sector to ecotourism, businesses heavily influence conservation policy, occasionally leading to robust protections but more often than not to business-as-usual activity on the water. Despite some important progress and growing ambition to conserve ecosystems, the book concludes that we are ultimately still doing too little to prevent the worst impacts of the escalating environmental crisis.

In a world in which sustainability is secondary to economic growth and development, research exploring the power and influence of economic actors is essential if we want a more equitable, healthier, livable planet. My commitment as a scholar is to promoting those goals, which will require nothing short of a new vision for how we protect our planet.