Keynote speakers
Farhana Sultana
Syracuse University
Farhana is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Research Director for Environmental Collaboration and Conflict at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is interested in nature-society relationships, political ecology, critical development studies, feminist theories, urban studies, climate change, water governance, social justice, human rights, citizenship and South Asia. She has a background in the natural and social sciences, policy experience, has lived and worked on three continents, is a post-colonial subject and scholar and has a lifelong commitment to critical praxis and social justice. Farhana is the recipient of the 2019 Glenda Laws award from the AAG.
Tina Ngata
Ngāti Porou
A Ngati Porou wāhine and mother of two, Tina’s work involves advocacy for environmental, Indigenous and human rights. This includes local, national and international initiatives that highlight the role of settler colonialism in issues such as climate change and waste pollution, and promote Indigenous conservation as best practice for a globally sustainable future. Tina has been a leading voice in pushing for action on plastic waste that tackles the root of the problem, empowers communities, and avoids reproducing colonialism. She blogs as The Non-Plastic Māori, and is a staunch advocate of Indigenous science.
James Renwick
Victoria University of Wellington
James is Professor and Head of School at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. James has nearly four decades’ experience in weather and climate research. His main field is large-scale climate variability and climate change, including the El Niño-Southern Oscillation cycle, the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds, and the impacts of climate variability and change on the Pacific, New Zealand and the Antarctic. James was a lead author for the last two Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is a Convening Lead Author for the new 6th IPCC Assessment. He was recently awarded the Prime Minister’s 2018 prize for Science Communication.
Geoffrey Caruso
University of Luxembourg and LISER
Geoffrey is Professor in Urban Analysis and Modelling at the Department of Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). His research is devoted to understanding spatial patterns and dynamics with specific foci on urban forms and residential choice, their impact on transport and the environment, the role of green space, and the integration of geosimulation and urban economics.
Emalani Case
Victoria University of Wellington
Emalani is a lecturer in Pacific Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. She coordinates core Pacific Studies courses focusing on Pacific heritages, histories in Polynesia, and the role of artists and activists in reframing Pacific societies. As a Hawaiian woman, activist, writer and dancer, she is deeply engaged in issues of indigenous rights and representation, dietary colonialism and food sovereignty, political independence, and environmental and social justice. Her current research focuses on Hawaiian articulations of identity and nationalism, sovereignty, and decolonizing indigenous minds and bodies. She is from Waimea, Hawaiʻi.
Jo Sharp
University of St Andrews
Jo is a Professor of Geography in the School of Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is a feminist political geographer with varied research interests including postcolonialism, health, and critical geopolitics. Much of her early work sought to extend what is considered to be the geopolitical beyond the formal spheres of statecraft to include popular culture and the everyday, and this has continued through her more recent postcolonial work on subaltern geopolitics. More recently, Jo has worked on environment, gender and health projects including interdisciplinary research to evaluate the key drivers of zoonotic disease (those which are transmitted from animals to humans) in northern Tanzania, and their impacts.
