Kelly Kay

Dr. Kelly Kay, London School of Economics and University of California, Berkeley

"Geodiversity or Cultural Diversity? Competing Visions for a Resilient Future"

Dr Kelly Kay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics. She received her PhD from the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University and her BA in Environmental Studies and Political Economy from Lewis and Clark College. Dr. Kay recently accepted a postdoctoral research position at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr Kay utilizes primarily qualitative methods to interrogate the changing political economy of the environment. Her work is situated theoretically at the nexus of political ecology, economic geography, and critical legal geography. Kelly’s past and present work looks at four major topics: the ongoing privatization of conservation lands in the United States and Europe; the politics of environmental valuation; the historical evolution of environmental law and governance under neoliberalism; and the current and historical restructuring and financialization of the United States’ industrial forest estate.

Kelly’s academic research has been published in a range of venues, including Geoforum and Environment and Planning A. Her work has been funded by the US National Science Foundation, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Institute for Human Geography, and a number of specialty groups of the Association of American Geographers.

Student Host: Dillon Mahmoudi, Urban Studies

Dr. Kay's slides are posted below along with audio of her presentation and Q&A (audio starts approximately 1 minute into her talk).