Julia (she/her) is half-Canadian and half-Norwegian with an academic background in sociology, land and food studies, climate change and conflict resolution. Her research is informed by decade-long career as an interdisciplinary artist, community facilitator and activist which has given her a range of tools to examine intersectional climate impacts, and to identify key pathways for advocacy, knowledge mobilization and policy-development. Alongside her Ph.D, Julia has worked as a legal-communications specialist with West Coast Environmental Law, and as a researcher on the Living with Water project; focusing on supporting communities, First Nations and local governments in building regional governance relationships to help them adapt to and prepare for climate-driven flooding around BC's south coast.
Coastal climate adaptation and Indigenous governance
Julia's research examines how water governance and climate adaptation planning is evolving in British Columbia amid Indigenous legal resurgence and accelerating climate change. As Indigenous people assert their rights and legal traditions within and outside of formal environmental decision-making contexts in BC, multiple knowledges and laws are interacting in governance spaces. Julia focuses on how Indigenous governments, and specifically Cowichan Tribes First Nation, are collaborating with different orders of Crown governments in planning and governance around the Cowichan-Koksilah watershed on Vancouver Island. By examining how watershed planning processes are reshaping expectations of authority in formal decision-making, her research aims to produce practical recommendations for communities seeking to bring more sustainable and decolonized visions for sharing watersheds to life.
- Peter Wall Fellowship (2026)
- President's Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award (2021)
