In the era of the Anthropocene, as aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, and tundra biomes are being affected by important ecological changes, management issues are rising beyond state boundary lines. This institute will deepen your knowledge of the various approaches used across the world to tackle climate change at the global and cross-border levels. Sessions will be facilitated by professionals from organizations that manage watersheds, peace parks and nature reserves from all continents, as well as leading academics in the fields of border studies that are studying how states and local/regional communities are adapting to those changes.
Upon successful completion of this institute, you will be able to:
Dr. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly is the Project Director at Borders in Globalization and a Co-Principle Investigator with Dr. Jeff Corntassel on the 7-year SSHRC partnership grant entitled “21st Century Borders” and is the lead of Pillar 2 for that grant focusing on Territory & Connectivity. He joined the University of Victoria School of Public Administration in 2001 and is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Victoria. He was the Jean Monnet Chair in European Urban and Border Region Policy (2014–16), then the Jean Monnet Chair in Innovative Governance (2017–20), and he is currently the Jean Monnet Chair in European Union Policy and Governance (2021–24).
Learn more about each speaker and what topics they will cover for the 2024 Ecological Border Management Summer Institute.
Edward A. (Ted) Parson is Dan and Rae Emmett Professor of Environmental Law and Faculty Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ted studies international environmental law and policy, the societal impacts and governance of disruptive technologies including geoengineering and artificial intelligence, and the political economy of regulation.
Oliver M. Brandes is an economist and lawyer by training and a trans-disciplinarian by design. He serves as Co-Director of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, based at the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies (CFGS), where he leads the award-winning POLIS Water Sustainability Project. His work focuses on water sustainability, watershed security, wildfire resilience, sound resource management, public policy development, and ecologically based legal and institutional reform.
Oliver serves as the Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships and Public Policy at CFGS. He is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Victoria Faculty of Law and is a fellow of the Environmental Law Centre. In 2012, he co-developed B.C.’s first water law course at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law. He also has affiliations at the University of Manitoba and Brock University.
Oliver is a technical advisor to the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, supporting the ongoing development and implementation of the provincial Water Sustainability Act. He also provides ongoing advisory support to the provincial government and Indigenous nations on issues of watershed security, governance and water law for watershed governance pilots and planning projects underway in regions across the province, including the Koksilah, Cowichan, Skeena, Nicola, Hullcar, and Coquitlam watersheds. In 2017 Oliver was appointed to lead an independent expert review on source drinking water protection in B.C., which resulted in regulatory change and informed the Auditor General of British Columbia’s work on drinking water.
Working in various settings, including scholarly, community, and expert practitioner forums, Oliver is a regular speaker and actively drives public dialogue and champions water sustainability and watershed security. This work includes chairing and planning the decade-long series of innovative biennial national Watersheds forums. He is also a founding member and current Chair of the national Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), and an advisor to numerous national, provincial, and local governments, water funders, and water organizations, including the First Nations Fisheries Council, BC Freshwater Legacy, Cowichan Watershed Board and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources.
Claude Beaupre is currently a joint Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada, and Contemporary History at the University of Strasbourg, France. She is a BIG Graduate Student Fellow (PhD) and a Research Assistant and Conference Coordinator with the Jean Monnet Network on Post-Truth Politics, Nationalism and the (De-) Legitimation of European Integration. Her current doctoral research is on the influence of media in contemporary Canadian migration discourse. She has previously received Masters from York University in Public and International Affairs and from Sciences Po Strasbourg in History of International Relations. She focused her Master Thesis on the Canadian Media coverage of the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe, 2015-2016. She also holds an honours Bachelor in International Studies from Glendon College, York University.
Simon Dalby is a Professor Emeritus at Wilfrid Laurier University. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Victoria and he holds a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University. His published research deals with climate change, environmental security and geopolitics. He is the author of Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World (Agenda Publishing 2023), Rethinking Environmental Security (Edward Elgar 2022), Anthropocene Geopolitics: Globalization, Security, Sustainability (University of Ottawa Press 2020), and Security and Environmental Change (Polity 2009).
Merrell-Ann Phare is a lawyer and author of the books Denying the Source: The Crisis of First Nations Water Rights and Ethical Water. Merrell-Ann is legal counsel and advisor to a number of Indigenous governments, non-Indigenous governments, and organizations, and regularly speaks on topics addressing environmental issues, Aboriginal rights, and governance. As Founding Executive Director of the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), Merrell-Ann works to assist First Nations in addressing environmental and sustainability issues facing their communities. She was Chief Negotiator on behalf of the Government of the Northwest Territories in their negotiation of transboundary water agreements in the Mackenzie River Basin and in negotiating Thaidene Nene national and territorial parks. Merrell-Ann currently serves as a Commissioner on the International Joint Commission.
Michael Miltenberger served in the Northwest Territories Legislature from 1995-2015, spending 14 of those years as a Cabinet Minister. His roles have been diverse, including Deputy Premier, Government House Leader, Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister of Education, Minister of Finance, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Minister Responsible for the NWT Power Corporation. He has worked extensively in the areas of water, the environment, and collaboration with Indigenous governments. He was responsible for and led the development of the co-drafting approach in the NWT government that resulted in the new Wildlife Act and Species at Risk Act. Michael is currently the Principal of North Raven, senior political advisor to National Chief Norman Yakeleya of the Dene Nation, a member of the Air Tindi Limited board of directors, and co-facilitator of the Collaborative Leadership Initiative in southern Manitoba. He lives in Fort Smith, NWT.
Dr. Jon O’Riordan joined the POLIS Water Sustainability Project as a strategic water policy advisor in 2007, where he focuses on provincial water policy reform and the ecological governance of water management. He is also a senior policy and research advisor to the Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) at Simon Fraser University and an associate fellow with the University of Victoria’s Centre for Global Studies (CFGS). He is a former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management in the British Columbia Provincial Government. He has completed 35 years in the public service, mainly with the Provincial Government, in environmental management and land and resource planning. In his most recent position at the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management, he was responsible for completing six regional land and resource management plans.
Karena (Kara) Shaw is an Associate Professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, a member of the Cultural, Social and Political Thought Graduate Program and the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems. A political theorist by training, she is particularly interested in how contemporary environmental challenges are reshaping political space and possibility. She has published in the areas of feminist theory, indigenous politics, and environmental politics, and was co-director of The Clayoquot Project. Prior to coming to UVic she was a Teaching Fellow at Keele University in the UK.
This institute can be taken to fulfill requirements for the following streams: