About Ryan's Work
I am an interdisciplinary researcher focused on the relationship between environmental governance, pastoralism, and dryland ecology. My work draws from landscape ecology alongside anthropology and geography of land, scale, and governance. I am currently part of the Conservation Data Justice (CONDJUST) team at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). I am focusing on geospatial data analysis practices used for prioritization of wildlife conservation and ecological restoration in areas where extensive pastoralism is a main livelihood. Before joining CONDJUST, I was a postdoc at National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (US) and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (IT) in affiliation with the Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience (PASTRES) programme at the Institute of Development Studies (UK). I also was previously based in the Geography department at the University of Lyon 2 (FR). I grew up in the United States, and did my PhD research in the Integrative Conservation program at the University of Georgia (US). My doctoral research used social science mixed-methods and remote sensing to study changing governance, livelihoods, and vegetation dynamics in collectively titled land in central and southern in Kenya.