Environmental Policy Research Group
The Environmental Policy Research Group (EPRG) was founded in 2017 as a collaboration between Dr. Matt Nowlin and Dr. Annette Watson. The EPRG’s mission is to conduct empirical research on environmental issues around the globe, promote interdisciplinary research collaboration, help students develop their research skills, and cultivate skills for conducting participatory research and public outreach. To meet this mission the EPRG fosters collaborations between faculty, undergraduates, and graduate students to incorporate qualitative and quantitative methodologies in understanding the environmental challenges faced by the world, and how those challenges might be addressed to make the world more sustainable. Projects engaged by the EPRG bridge the natural and social sciences to produce basic and applied research, resulting in peer-reviewed publications as well as white papers and government reports, GIS mapping, surveys, and community-based projects.
The EPRG meets a few times every semester to talk about processes of research, grant writing, research results, and doing practice presentations. If you are undergraduate or graduate student interested in working with us please send an updated resume or curriculum vitae, an up-to-date degree audit, and a brief statement expressing your interest in environmental issues. A few paid positions may be available and we are happy to facilitate independent studies, Bachelor’s Essays, and Master’s theses. Please send your information to both Dr. Nowlin at nowlinmc@cofc.edu and Dr. Watson at WatsonAM@cofc.edu.
Dr. Annette Watson has served as a technical advisor for the Arctic Athabaskan Council since 2013.
Publications
July 10, 2020 - Dr. Annette Watson and graduate student Ina Ivanova contributed to "Systematic review of documented Indigenous Knowledge of freshwater biodiversity in the circumpolar Arctic" published in Freshwater Biology.
Abstract: "Indigenous Peoples in the Arctic have for millennia relied on freshwaters for drinking water and freshwater species that comprise important subsistence harvests, which promotes a strong connection to the land and unique understanding of organisms and ecosystem processes and changes. Despite the importance of freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services to Arctic Indigenous communities, there have been limited attempts to summarize available Indigenous Knowledge (IK) regarding Arctic freshwater systems and to understand how conservation can benefit from this knowledge base.
This paper presents a systematic review of literature documenting circumpolar Arctic IK with a focus on freshwater biodiversity in Canada, Greenland, Fennoscandia (Norway, Sweden, and Finland), Russia, and the U.S.A. (Alaska)."