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