Kate Sherren

Education

• BES Hons, University of Waterloo
• PhD, Australian National University
• PDF, Australian National University

Research interests

Dr. Sherren (she/her) is an environmental social scientist who researches the human dimensions of landscape change, particularly in contexts of sustainable agriculture, renewable energy transition and coastal climate adaptation. This includes increasing engagement with ecosystem services, particularly the more immaterial categories that are cultural or relational in nature. Novel methods are of particular interest, including spatial and visual approaches like in situ landscape elicitation. She is increasingly integrating secondary datasets such as those from social media into her work, developing landscape culturomics for application in decision-making contexts such as social impact assessment. She invites prospective student inquiries from trained social scientists or those from adjacent fields with demonstrated evidence of social curiosity around landscape issues.

Selected publications

Please review recent publications on Google Scholar. 

• Sherren, K. 2021. From climax thinking toward a non-equilibrium approach to public good landscape change. Energy Impacts: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of North American Energy Development, Jeffrey Jacquet, Julia Haggerty and Gene Theodori, Eds (Social Ecology Press /University of Utah Press).
• Sherren, K., Bowron, T., Graham, J. M., Rahman, H. M. Tuihedur and van Proosdij, D. 2019. Coastal infrastructure realignment and salt marsh restoration in Nova Scotia, Canada. Responding to Rising Seas: Comparing OECD Countries’ Approaches to Coastal Adaptation, Lisa Danielson Ed. (OECD: Paris, France).
• Sherren, K., Parkins, J. R., Owen, T., and Terashima, M. 2019. Does noticing energy infrastructure influence public support for energy development? Evidence from a national survey in Canada. Energy Research and Social Science, 51, 176-186.
• Sherren, K. and Darnhofer, I. 2018. Precondition for integration: in support of stand-alone social science for rangeland and silvo-pastoral research. Rangeland Ecology and Management, 71(5), 545-548.
• Sherren, K. The new battle for the Falklands. Canadian Notes & Queries [literary magazine], Iss 101, Winter 2018.
• Sherren, K., Parkins, J. R., Smit, M., Holmlund, M. and Chen, Y. 2017. Digital archives, big data and image-based culturomics for social impact assessment: opportunities and challenges. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 67, 23-30.
• Sherren, K. and Kent. C. 2017. Who’s afraid of Allan Savory? Scientometric polarization on Holistic Management as competing understandings. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 34(1), 77-92.
• Sherren, K., Greenland-Smith, S., Beckley, T.M. and Comeau, L. 2017. How provincial and local discourses aligned against the prospect of dam removal in New Brunswick, Canada. Water Alternatives 10(3): 697-723.
• Sherren, K., Beckley, T., Parkins. J., Stedman, R. C., Keilty, K., and Morin, I. 2016. Learning (or living) to love the landscapes of hydroelectricity in Canada: Eliciting local preferences on the Mactaquac Dam via headpond boat tours. Energy Research and Social Science, 14, 102-110.
• Sherren, K., Loik, L. and Debner, J. 2016. Climate adaptation in ‘new world’ cultural landscapes: the case of Bay of Fundy agricultural dykelands (Nova Scotia, Canada). Land Use Policy, 51, 267-280.

Selected awards and honours

• Awarded ‘Research Star’ for the Dalhousie Faculty of Management, 2018
• Awarded inaugural ‘Rising Research Star’ for the Dalhousie Faculty of Management, 2015 Finalist (1 of 12 nationally), 2012 SSHRC Aurora Prize
• Finalist (1 of 3 nationally), 2011 Eureka (Australia’s National) Science Prize for ‘Research by an Interdisciplinary Team’

Teaching

• ENVI 5059 SRES Research Seminar 
• ENVI 5023 Qualitatie Data Analysis 
• ENVI 5035 Research Design and Methods