Research
Political Ecology
MAIN RESEARCH AIM: Critical examination of the methods, politics, and challenges of restricting or allowing for the flourishing and free movement of animals / across borders and cultures
PrimarY research site: Delaware Bay, New Jersey, USA
In May and June, the Delaware Bay hosts one of the largest gatherings of shorebirds and other species in the world. Jenny has studied shorebird conservation efforts at closed beaches in New Jersey, as a participant observer and shorebird steward, from 2011 - present. The DE Bay is the flagship site of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network, a network of over 100 conservation sites, which she focused on in her PhD.
New Jersey's Delaware Bay is a 'more-than-human contact zone' (Isaacs & Otruba 2019) -- a multispecies intersection point or 'liminal space' where difference others meet and relations are uneven. Here in May and June, conservation officers and 'shorebird stewards' protect migratory threatened shorebirds from disturbance as they forage on horseshoe crab eggs. The birds utilize nine state-enforced, town-supported, scientifically-informed closure sites. These sites of conservation encounters and resistance served as Jenny's field research. Here she witnessed and documented the dynamics of multispecies conservation encounters; she served as a participant observer of wildlife management best practices, interviewed beach goers, scientists, and volunteers. Jenny began this project in 2011 as part of her Sustainability Studies Masters Program research, under Dr. Eric Wiener at Ramapo College and continued with it as her PhD at Rutgers. She completed her PhD dissertation "The 'bander's grip': A techno-political ecology of Western Atlantic shorebird conservation" at and graduated from Rutgers in May 2021, under the supervision of her Dissertation Committee Advisors: Richard Schroeder (Chair, Brandeis), Asher Ghertner (Co-Chair, Rutgers), Kevin St. Martin (Rutgers), and Elizabeth DeLoughrey (UCLA). She has published numerous articles and chapters on this research. Read about what it's like to protect and capture shorebirds at these sites, sensitive to their de/postcolonial context, here.
Secondary research interests:
Inter-tribal, Intergovernmental Bison Management in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. For example, supporting the inspiring work of the Buffalo Field Campaign.
New Jersey planning and execution of Spotted Lanternfly, Black Bear, and White-Tailed Deer eradication / management programs (across Mid-Atlantic States)
Areas of Specialization
Conservation ENVironmental Management
Political ecology: Including biogeography, stewardship, conservation network building to protect migratory species, across borders and cultures, movement ecology, biomobility & biosecurity environmental knowledge production & management, human-animal conflict, wildlife tracking & monitoring, globalization of conservation, sustainability, wilderness and wildness, wildlife forensics, citizen science. Cases of focus include the managment of shorebirds, bison, and spotted lanternfly.
Animal / More-than-human Geography
Examining sites, situations, and spatial aspects of human entanglements with other animals. Ethnographic case-based research using the lenses of more-than-human geography (Whatmore), multispecies studies and extinction studies (Kirksey, Haraway), critical animal studies, animal geography (Urbanik), animal ethics / animality / animalization, and biophilosophy, animal atmospheres, aerogeography, ocean studies, vertical / volumetric sovereignty
Environmental Humanities
Application of critical theory and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the environment: especially de/postcolonial theory, Indigenous & Latin American theories of decolonization, Feminist science studies / STS, environmental philosophy, ecocriticism, use of the media/narrative, spatial theory, new materialism, ecofeminism, nonrepresentational theory, actor-network theory, island and archipelagic studies, development studies, queer ecology, Buddhist ecology, emotion and affect / of field work
