As a researcher I have a deep interest in the political ecology of international development and a specific interest in the geo-politics of resource scarcity and environmental change. My research is directed toward deepening our understanding of the role of alternative governance architectures, both formal and informal, and their role in addressing the nature of, sources of, and impacts of conflicts related to practices in forestry, fisheries, agriculture, mining, and energy sectors. By focusing on specific commodities originating in specific places, I am able to analyze the local to the global more easily, thereby illuminating the political economy of environmental governance, and gaps in governance processes at varying scales. As a doctoral student and member of the Political Ecology of Development Research Group at the University of Cambridge, my goal was to develop an innovative approach to environmental conflict analysis to improve upon our understanding of the contemporary conduct of environmental politics and security. To do this, I carried out a detailed history and analysis of a conflict over access to, and control over, the mangrove wetlands of the Gulf of Fonseca, southern Honduras between 1973 and 2006[1]. I employed a poststructuralist political ecology framework, combining an actor-network approach to discourse analysis with event history and ecology. The objective was to analyze the discourses and actions that have framed the conflict socio-historically and to identify each actor’s associated political and economic interests in relation to the physical geographic space in dispute. The result was the development of an analytical tool that leads to a clearer understanding of the historical and political nature of environmental conflicts. In my dissertation, I argued that environmental conflict is a struggle over both discursive and physical geographic space and that the conflict in southern Honduras emerged due to two distinct but inter-related social imaginaries. Both neoliberalism and environmentalism have increasingly become powerful ideologies, dominating the debates related to ‘environment and development’ in Honduras, and throughout the world. Both of these ideologies have been pursued through discursive means and actions that ultimately have affected the lives of local people and the mangrove ecosystem of the Gulf. Local resistance to the Honduran government and the shrimp industry’s actions led civil society actors to re-imagine discursive and physical spaces within the public realm, leading to nascent forms of environmental governance within the context of democratic and capitalist transformations in Honduras, reshaping rural coastal livelihoods and the environment. My research affirmed my interest in understanding environmental governance, its inextricable link to human security and the contribution of both to political and socio-economic stability. After surviving cancer, I have recently refocused my attention on the topic of governance. In 2014, I published an introductory chapter, “Understanding Governance” and a shorter piece titled “Can Networked Governance Help?” for the World Watch Institute’s State of the World 2014, Governing for Sustainability. I have also published another chapter with Central American political leaders titled: “Environmental Governance and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Central America: A Case of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development”[2], which serve as examples of my focus and dedication to the topic of governance. Of particular interest to me are newly emerging systems of networked governance, private governance, or market-based approaches, and hybrid systems. I have a specific interest in conducting research and writing about alternative governance architectures, such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the Kimberly Process, the Roundtables on Sustainable Soy, Palm Oil and Biofuels, the Forestry and Marine Stewardship Councils, the Equator Principles, and the myriad forms of cooperative governance structures being implemented by organizations, such as Conservation International’s Conservation Stewards Program. Specific research questions include:

• What makes global environmental governance networks successful in managing resources among stakeholders, while reducing the potential for conflict? What makes them fail?
• What are the specific mechanisms by which environmental governance contributes to peace and stability? What are the security implications?
• What motivates and shapes the behavior of institutions and other stakeholders to join environmental governance networks?
• What are the sources and impacts of conflicts related to the extraction of commodities? How can alternative governance architectures assist in mitigating and preventing them?

My research aim is to contribute to the literature on alternative governance architectures that are inclusive and effective at solving global problems. Conflicts driven by environment or natural resource considerations are expected to increase in the coming decades. Environmental degradation, climate and ecosystem change are all projected to accelerate, and natural disasters are expected to increase and intensify. Certain resources, particularly freshwater and arable land, are predicted to grow increasingly scarce. Regions that are already characterized by poor and vulnerable populations, and a propensity toward conflict, are expected to see some of the most severe impacts. The resulting loss of livelihoods, inequality, mass migration, and weakened state capacity have the potential to undermine political and economic stability. Subsequently, I am interested in the role of both formal and informal systems of governance and how they can mitigate and prevent conflict driven by natural resource use in the context of global environmental change. In summary, my experiences studying in foreign countries and conducting research in different cultural contexts, as well as my professional involvement in the international arena has resulted in a solid network of contacts to facilitate future research, while offering a unique lens from which to conduct it, yet remaining well grounded in interdisciplinary[3] methods and theory. [1] The title of my doctoral thesis: Political Ecology of Mangroves in Southern Honduras: Emergence and Evolution of Environmental Conflict in the Gulf of Fonseca 1973 – 2006.  [2] The chapter is a part of a series: Strengthening Post-Conflict Peacebuilding through Natural Resource Management in Volume 6: Governance and Institutions – Confidence Building (edited by Carl Bruch and Sandra Nichols). United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Environmental Law Institute (ELI), University of Tokyo and the Environment, and the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law. [3] My research is highly inter-disciplinary in nature drawing on extensive theoretical, philosophical, and historical information, and perspectives from a variety of fields: human and political geography, geopolitics, political ecology, political theory, international relations, security studies, north-south international political economy, social psychology, global environmental policy and politics, natural resources and transboundary governance, public international law, and discourse theory, placing me in an ideal position to integrate subject matter across disciplines, within and between the sciences and the social sciences.