Dr.  Hannah Harrison

About

I am originally from traditional Dena’ina lands (Homer, Alaska) where I grew up in a salmon fishing family. My work and interests stem from a close relationships with fish, community, and the lands and waters on which I grew up.

By discipline, I am best described as a human ecologist, meaning I’m interested in the many facets of human-environmental relationships. I specialize in qualitative research and am interested in critically exploring problems related to marine social-ecological systems, particularly within fisheries and coastal community contexts.

I earned my Bachelor of Science (Natural Resource Management) and Master’s of Science (Environmental Ethnography) at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. My PhD was earned as part of a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions ITN at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. I came to Canada in 2019 as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Guelph on Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territory (Guelph, Ontario). In July of 2022 I joined the Marine Affairs Program at Dalhousie University in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia), where I now work as an Assistant Professor and teach in the Master of Marine Management program.

Research Approach

My research focuses on topics where human-environmental relationships are challenged, contested, or evolving to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene. As a human ecologist, my work is inter- and transdisciplinary, drawing on theories and literature from human geography, political ecology, anthropology, and other fields that can contribute toward my understanding of a case. I am especially interested in cases where conflicts are occurring over natural resource use. I approach research topics through a critical lens, and craft my research to be applicable to policy-makers and resource users as well as meaningful to the communities in which I work. I craft my work around reciprocal relationships with natural resource stake and rights-holders, and value working across disciplines to build multifaceted understandings of human-environmental relationships.

In addition to my research, I am highly interested in innovating around science communication and knowledge mobilization (KMb) approaches.  I have worked with producing films, podcasts, and public-facing written materials as a means of communicating knowledge to general audiences and improving accessibility to science.

Most Recent Publication

Harrison, H.L. and Gould, J.G. (2022), Big Catch, Undecided Risks: Perspectives of Risk, Reward, and Trade-Offs in Alaska's Salmon Enhancement Program. North Am J Fish Manage. https://doi.org/10.1002/nafm.10830

You can also LISTEN to an annotated and abridged version of this paper here: https://soundcloud.com/conservechange/pubcast-big-catch-undecided-risks-in-alaskas-salmon-enhancement-program-najfm?si=d3bf6d5138bc455eba4e739f8c5d6817&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Website: hannahharrison.ca