Congratulations to Kerrie Pickering whose PhD candidature was confirmed recently at the University of the Sunshine Coast! Kerrie is a doctoral student with the Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast and Brock University, Canada.
Kerrie gave an informative and engaging presentation of her proposed research that will be conducted with local people in the Nadroga-Navosa Province, Viti Levu, Fiji. Pacific Island countries, including Fiji, are experiencing rapid changes in climate and society with implications for food security and human health. These changes are already affecting local food production and food access. Kerrie plans to travel to Fiji in September and work with local people to better understand how socio-ecological changes translate to affect food security. Her research will examine how recent socio-ecological changes are affecting food security and implications for human health in three villages, along the Sigatoka River; in near-urban, peri-urban and geographically remote settings, respectively. Data will be collected with villagers using surveys, semi-structured interviews and free listing. The research is novel in that it examines the relationships among climatic and societal changes for food security; and considers the role, if any, that peripherality has on the research findings.
More about Kerrie:
Kerrie is a doctoral student with the Sustainability Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast and Brock University, Canada. Her research interests occur at the intersection between climate and societal changes, food security, and human health. Following an international nursing career, Kerrie completed a Bachelor of Science (Hons) (Environmental Studies) in 2010 and a Master of Arts (Geography) 2013 at Brock University, Canada. Her past research includes assessing the adaptive capacity of the Ontario wine industry for climate change adaptation and bird watching as a way to reconnect nursing home residents with nature to increase their wellbeing. Kerrie is president of the Ontario Nurses for the Environment Interest Group of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, Canada.