ENP welcomes new PhD researcher Jillian Student

Vulnerability (to climate change) is dynamic. Yet, scientific understanding is limited on how vulnerabilities emerges and how emergent vulnerability affects adaptive capacity and strategies. Jillian’s research primarily focuses on understanding the dynamic nature of vulnerability and adaptive capacity to climate change in the context of coastal tourism. This approach explicitly includes human-human and human-environment interactions and incorporates Agent-based modelling, ComMod (companion modelling), local actors, and fieldwork. She will be conducting fieldwork in the Caribbean.

Some of Jillian’s interests include complex human-environment dynamics, adaptive governance, sustainable energy consumption, participatory approaches (including companion modelling), and social/organizational norms.

After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Canada, she started her first Master’s degree (Environment Resource Management) at the Vrije Universiteit focusing on sustainable energy consumption transitions. Jillian was selected for the SENSE Honours Programme and completed a second Master’s at Wageningen University (Environmental Sciences) focusing on human-environment systems and tourism. Her PhD proposal “Vulnerability is dynamic: Enhancing adaptive governance to climate change for Caribbean tourism through interactive modelling” was granted funding through the NWO MAGW Talent search. Prior to starting her PhD, she conducted research with the NIAS-Lorentz theme group working on the topic “The emergence of the glass ceiling” at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS).