Lauren Eckert

Honorary Auntie, PhD Candidate (University of Victoria) | she/her/hers

My name is Lauren Eckert. I am a settler-descended scholar and immigrant to Canada of mixed European descent, and currently live on Tla’amin Nation territory (Lund, BC).

I am a Western-trained conservation scientist and current PhD candidate at the University of Victoria, grateful for my many opportunities to collaborate with the amazing folks at the Centre for Indigenous Fisheries. My early research experiences around the globe exposed me to the complexities of interrelated social and ecological systems and motivated me to delve into conservation science that recognizes humans’ important and inherent role in global ecosystems, engages communities directly in conservation and supports Indigenous Nations and individuals reasserting their knowledge and rights. My MSc work at the University of Victoria bridged Indigenous knowledge and ecological science through a community-engaged, Indigenous-led approach to conservation in partnership with Central Coast First Nations in their territories.

I began my PhD in 2017. My current research interests include: the intersections of Indigenous and Western sciences, Canadian environmental policy and the role human values play in our relationships with wildlife and, ultimately, conservation conflicts and collaborative ways to transform them. Using my growing expertise in both Western social and ecological sciences, and alongside friends, communities, and scholars - I aim to engage in research and storytelling that resituates Western science as one of many ways of knowing, confronts colonization and inequity, and contributes meaningfully to my relationships and to a better, kinder world. I am thrilled to partner with Dr. Andrea Reid and other Centre members on a variety of research, including research documenting the over-criminalization of Indigenous fishers in their territories and Indigenous perspectives on just futures.