Dr. Karen Bakker is Professor, Canada Research Chair, and Founding Director of the Program on Water Governance at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability.
Dr. Bakker has published over 100 academic publications (including books with Oxford, Cornell, and Toronto University Press), and contributes regularly to the popular press (Dissent, Globe and Mail, Guardian, Huffington Post, Sunday Times). She regularly acts as an advisor and consultant to national and international organizations (including the UNDP, OECD, and the Conference Board of Canada). She currently sits on the Board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, and she is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Council of Canadian Academies.
A Rhodes Scholar with a PhD from Oxford University, Professor Bakker was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2011. In 2014, she was named as a Member of the inaugural cohort of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists & Scientists. In 2015, she was awarded the Lenore Annenberg and Wallis Annenberg Fellowship in Communication at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University (2015–16); the same year, she was a Cox Visiting Professor at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University. In 2017, she was named a Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She has also been recognized by a SSHRC Impact Award, a Young Leader award from the World Cities Summit, and the Glenda Laws Award from the Association of American Geographers.
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Summer 2018
I have recently started a new project on tech innovation and environmental governance, focusing on the evolution of conservation in response to environmental sensing and emerging technologies. Check out our recently published meta-review:
Bakker, K. and M. Ritts. 2018. Smart Earth: A meta-review and implications for environmental governance. Global Environmental Change. 52: 201 – 211. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017313730)
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Spring 2018
New publication out with Jenn Baka (Penn State), Kate Neville (University of Toronto) and Erika Weinthal) Duke on our hydraulic fracturing research:
Baka, J., K. Neville, E. Weinthal, and K. Bakker. 2018. Policy Mobilities and Agenda-Setting at the Energy-Water Nexus: Constructing and Maintaining a Policy Monopoly in US Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation. Review of Policy Research. 35(3), 439 – 465. (DOI) – 10.1111/ropr.12287
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Winter 2017
Review article on the governance of unconventional energy:
Neville, K., Baka, J., Gamper-Rabindran, S., Bakker, K., Andreasson, S., Vengosh, A., Lin, A., Nem Singh, J., and Weinthal, E. 2017. Debating unconventional energy: Social, political and economic implications. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 42, 241-266.
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Summer 2017
Our Sustainable Water Governance and Indigenous Law team was just awarded a SSHRC Impact Award! Check out the full list of finalists here.
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Spring 2017
Delighted to announce that I’ve been named as a member of the Board of the International Institute for Sustainable Development! IISD is an independent think tank working on a broad range of sustainability issues.
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November 2016
Great new book on Water Governance in Canada just out! Congrats to editors Steve Renzetti and Diane Dupont at Brock University, who lead the Water Economics, Policy and Governance Network (of which our Program on Water Governance is a member).
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October 2016
I’m honoured to be one of the invited speakers at Banff Forum 2016. And equally honoured to be chairing a session at the UNESCO Monitoring Mission on Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP). At the request of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, UNESCO is studying whether to designate the WBNP a World Heritage Site in Danger.
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September 2016
Our $2.4M SSHRC Partnership Grant was just funded! Here’s the full list of successful grants from across Canada.
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August 2016
A collective of 350+ Canadian scholars has signed a Statement of Concern on Site C: a major hydro-electricity project in early stages of construction in north-eastern British Columbia. For more information: www.sitecstatement.org.
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August 2015: My sabbatical is just starting: I’ll be based at Stanford’s Centre for the Applied Study of Behavioural Sciences for the academic year. I’ll be cross-appointed with the Stanford School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences as a Cox Visiting Professor. During the coming 12 months, I won’t be posting regularly – taking a hiatus!
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Check out the updates to our Program on Water Governance website: including our new publications on water security in Canada.
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May 2015: Exciting news! My new online course just launched on the Harvard/MIT EdX platform. The interdisciplinary course is titled “Urban Water: Innovations for Environmental Sustainability.” The free course uses documentary-style videos to feature cutting-edge innovators working on a variety of urban water issues. Sign up here.
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Check out my latest book: a collection of essays from leading water experts across North America: Water Without Borders (University of Toronto Press). The royalties are being donated to the WaterKeeper Alliance. Many thanks to the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation for their support of this project.
