Jennifer Brewer is a Professor in the Department of Geography and a faculty member in the Master of Public Policy program and Natural Resources and Earth Systems Science doctoral program. As a political ecologist, her research focuses on human-environment relations and environmental governance. Her research asks how decision processes can simultaneously sustain natural resources and strengthen democracy under conditions of environmental change. Her projects in marine fisheries, climate change, and coastal management and urbanization have spanned policymaking from local to international scales, including community- and market-based resource co-management models. She especially enjoys working with interdisciplinary and international research teams that integrate field data collection with qualitative and quantitative analysis and strengthen the interface between science and civic participation.
Jennifer holds a doctorate in Human Geography from Clark Graduate School of Geography, a Master of Science in Marine Policy from the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan School of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She previously held a joint appointment at East Carolina University in the Department of Geography and Institute for Coastal Science and Policy. She has also worked at the National Academy of Sciences, US House of Representatives, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and in the non-profit sector.
Courses Taught
- GEOG 405: Honors/There Is No Planet B
- GEOG 500: Making Change: Soc & Envt Just
- GEOG 572: Geog of Natural Environment
- GEOG 590: Field Research
- GEOG 673: Political Ecology
- GEOG 695: Internship
Research Interests
- Environmental policy
- Environmental politics and social change
- Fisheries Management
- Human-environment geography
- Natural Resources Management
- Public Engagement
Selected Publications
Brewer, J. F., & Hapke, H. M. (n.d.). Escalating uncertainties require institutional transformation to support epistemological pluralism. npj Ocean Sustainability, 3(1). doi:10.1038/s44183-024-00052-y
Turner, M. M., Ghayoomi, M., Duderstadt, K., Brewer, J., & Kholodov, A. (2023). Climate change and seismic resilience: Key considerations for Alaska's infrastructure and built environment.. PLoS One, 18(10), e0292320. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0292320
Covi, M. P., Brewer, J. F., & Kain, D. J. (2021). Sea level rise hazardscapes of North Carolina: Perceptions of risk and prospects for policy. OCEAN & COASTAL MANAGEMENT, 212. doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2021.105809
Brewer, J. F., Molton, K., Alden, R., & Guenther, C. (2017). Accountability, transformative learning, and alternate futures for New England groundfish catch shares. MARINE POLICY, 80, 113-122. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2016.09.015
Brewer, J. F., Springuel, N., Wilson, J., Alden, R., Morse, D., Schmitt, C., . . . Brady, D. (2017). Engagement in a Public Forum: Knowledge, Action, and Cosmopolitanism. ANTIPODE, 49(2), 273-293. doi:10.1111/anti.12270
Brewer, J. F., & Watts, N. S. J. (2016). Mending the Net: Property and Markets in Fisheries Policy for Less-Developed Contexts. Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, 19(4), 269-283. doi:10.1080/13880292.2016.1248637
Brewer, J. F. (2014). Harvesting a knowledge commons: collective action, transparency, and innovation at the Portland Fish Exchange. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE COMMONS, 8(1), 155-178. Retrieved from https://www.webofscience.com/
Brewer, J. F. (2014). Hog Daddy and the Walls of Steel: Catch Shares and Ecosystem Change in the New England Groundfishery. SOCIETY & NATURAL RESOURCES, 27(7), 724-741. doi:10.1080/08941920.2014.905811
Brewer, J. F. (2013). Making an environmental market, unmaking adaptive capacity: Species commodification in the New England groundfishery. GEOFORUM, 50, 172-181. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.08.006
Brewer, J. F. (2013). From Experiential Knowledge to Public Participation: Social Learning at the Community Fisheries Action Roundtable. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, 52(2), 321-334. doi:10.1007/s00267-013-0059-z
