Dr Leah M. GIBBS

Position:  Lecturer
Room:  41.G11
Phone:  +61 2 4298 1547
Email:  leah_gibbs@uow.edu.au

AUSCCER

Research Interests

My research focuses on the cultures and politics of nature. In particular, I am interested in the following themes:

1. cultural geographies of nature, especially water;
2. environmental governance;
3. politics of environmental knowledge production; and
4. multi-disciplinary research methodologies.

Current research
 

1. Water governance

Within this theme I am currently working on two projects.

‘Australian water governance in an era of climate change’
Water is one of the major challenges for contemporary Australia. Global climate change promises to make decision-making about water an even greater challenge. Around the world, we are witnessing a shift in environmental decision-making from ‘government’ to ‘governance’, suggesting a far greater degree of participation by a range of non-government institutions and members of the public. This project investigates who participates in Australian water governance, what mechanisms enable or present barriers to participation, and how participation may be shaped by climate change and climate change discourse. This project is funded by a UOW URC Small Grant.

‘Environmental knowledge production and water governance in the global south’
This project investigates the extent to which diverse systems of environmental knowledge are acknowledged and accommodated in water governance in Tanzania. It analyses the role of northern discourses in southern environmental governance, and the practical and political implications of environmental knowledge production in the context of environmental change. The project is funded by a Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers Small Research Grant.

Fishing boats at Lake Nyumba ya Mungu, northern Tanzania

2. ‘SiteWorks’ and arts-science collaboration on the Shoalhaven River

SiteWorks is a series of ongoing projects facilitated by Bundanon Trust (http://www.bundanon.com.au/siteworks), involving visual and performing artists, scientists and local people. It involves participants developing collaborative site-based responses to the Bundanon properties on the Shoalhaven River, south of Wollongong. SiteWorks 2010 comprised a creative Lab and a series of public conversations around the future of food and water in the context of climate change. In 2011-2012 I am continuing to work with Bundanon Trust as a SiteWorks participant, and through a writing residency (http://www.bundanon.com.au/content/residencies). My work focuses on the possibilities presented by arts-science collaboration.
 

SiteWorks 2010 (Photo Heidrun Löhr)

3. Valuing water

This ongoing research examines current approaches to valuing water within natural resource management, the values that people attribute to water, and the gap that exists between the two. It draws on research in the Lake Eyre Basin, central Australia, and brings together cultural research methods and institutional analysis. The research contributes to recent society-nature discourse, and engages with an interdisciplinary literature of human interactions with nature. Current writing focuses on the agency of water.

Coongie Lakes, eastern central Australia

Representative publications

Searchable Publications

Gibbs, L.M. 2010. "A beautiful soaking rain": environmental value and water beyond Eurocentrism. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, v.28 (2), 363-378. doi:10.1068/d9207

Gibbs, L.M. 2010. Book review "Troubled Waters: confronting the water crisis in Australia's cities" by Patrick Troy (Ed.). Urban Studies, v.47 (1), 222-224. doi:10.1177/00420980100470011105

Gibbs, L.M. 2009. Just add water: colonisation, water governance and the Australian inland. Environment and Planning A, v.41 (12), 2964-2983. doi:10.1068/a41214

Gibbs, L.M. 2009. Water places: cultural, social and more-than-human geographies of nature. Scottish Geographical Journal, v.125 (3-4, Special Issue: Glasgow Geography Centenary), 361-369. doi:10.1080/14702540903364393

Gibbs, L.M. 2009. Book review "Resurrecting the Granary of Rome: environmental history and French colonial expansion in North Africa" by Diana K. Davis. Land Degradation & Development, v.20 (3), 347-348. doi:10.1002/ldr.890

Stringer, L.C., Twyman, C. and Gibbs, L.M. 2008. Learning from the South: common challenges and solutions for small-scale farming. Geographical Journal, v.174 (3), 235-250. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4959.2008.00298

Gibbs, L.M. 2006. Valuing Water: variability and the Lake Eyre Basin, central Australia. Australian Geographer, v.37 (1), 73-85. doi:10.1080/00049180500511988

Gibbs, L.M. 2003. Decolonising, multiplicities and mining in the Eastern Goldfields, Western Australia. Australian Geographical Studies, v.41 (1), 17-28. doi:10.1111/1467-8470.00189

Current students

Andrew Wilbur (PhD) ‘Seeding alternatives: Back-to-the-land migration and alternative agro-food networks in Northern Italy’.  Co-supervised with Jo Sharp (University of Glasgow) and Jane Jacobs (University of Edinburgh)

Katie O’Neal (MEnv.Sc. Research) ‘Critical analysis of coastal management legislative frameworks: barriers and opportunities for the uptake of science’. Co-supervised with Debora de Freitas and Richard Kenchington (UOW)

Christopher Counsell (Int BSc Hons) ‘Directing the flow: the capacity of individuals to influence government decisions on water’

Nicholas Skilton (BSc Hons) ‘Colonial conservation: the truth of science, and the frontier administrations that champion it’. Co-supervised with Michael Adams (UOW) 

Past students

Jacqueline McKinnon (BSc Hons, 2011) ‘It’s not easy being orange: exploring NSW State Emergency Service volunteer attitudes and practices towards nature’

Annalee Moes (BSc Hons, 2011) ‘Map-making methods: young people and the Shoalhaven River’

Suggested topics for future students

I welcome students interested in working in the area of the cultures and politics of nature.

Abbreviated CV

June 2010–  Lecturer, University of Wollongong

February 2007–May 2010  Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK

August 2006–January 2007  Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, UK

2006  PhD, Australian National University

1999  BSc(Hons), Macquarie University