Photo by Michael Krochta
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Photo by Sarah Wald
Positionality
Positionality
I am a white American settler of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. I grew up in a middle class household in the suburbs of Maryland, though I’ve lived in both rural and urban settings in the Pacific Northwest or Rocky Mountains for nearly 30 years. My understandings of people, place and human-nature interrelationships are also strongly shaped by my experiences in the Aysén Region of Chilean Patagonia, which I've been visiting over the past two decades.
My research revolves around palustrine wetlands, forest-wetland ecotones and how intensifying drought and more frequent fires are impacting these socio-ecological systems. I use methodologies drawn from quantitative and qualitative Western science frameworks and informed by the literature on political ecology and politics of scale. I am increasingly interested in the processes by which we, as individuals and social groups, develop ecological awareness and understanding. I hope to engage with more relational, embodied, and decolonial practices by aligning my research approaches with Indigenous ways of knowing and being and partnering with Indigenous scholars and practitioners.
I am currently a Research Associate and Wetland Ecologist with the Institute for Natural Resources / Oregon Biodiversity Information Center at Portland State University.
Land Acknowledgements
Land Acknowledgements
As a settler and non-Indigenous white researcher in the geographic areas now known as Oregon and Chile, I recognize that I have the privilege to live, do my work and visit these places as a result of structural racism and the forced sacrifices, continued colonization, systemic violence, and strategic displacement of the original and rightful stewards of these lands. In remembering the following peoples and their homelands, it is my intent to honor and give thanks to their legacies, their lives, and their descendants.
The lands and waters on which Portland State University sits in downtown Portland, Oregon are the traditional, ancestral and contemporary homelands of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Watlala bands of the Chinook, the Tualatin Kalapuya, and many other Indigenous peoples of the Columbia River.
The lands and waters managed as Mt. Hood National Forest, which are adjacent to the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, are the traditional, ancestral and contemporary homelands of the Chinook, Clackamas, Molalla, Kalapuya, Wishram, Wasco, Wyam, Tenino, Tygh, Paiute, Walla Walla and many other Indigenous peoples.
The lands and waters within the administrative boundaries of the Aysén Region of Chile are the traditional, ancestral and contemporary homelands of the Aónikenk, Chono, Kawésqar and many other Indigenous peoples.
Education
Education
Ph.D. Earth, Environment & Society, Portland State University, 2024
M.S. Resource Conservation, University of Montana, 2011
B.A. Biology, Reed College, 2002
More Information
More Information
Pronouns: she/her
Email: kzaret@pdx.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylazaret/
Institute for Natural Resources, Oregon Biodiversity Information Center
Vernier Science Center, Suite 316
Portland State University
Palustrine wetland within the 2020 Riverside Fire burn perimeter, Middle Clackamas watershed.
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