AUSTIN HUMPHRIES (he/him)

I lead an academic research group that studies interactions between people and the sea. We collect data using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods including underwater fish counts, fisheries landings, fisher interviews, and household surveys. These data inform statistical and simulation models aimed at improving our understanding of trade-offs among fish population dynamics, fisher well-being, and food security. We primarily work in small-scale artisanal fisheries across the tropics. The goal is that our research is used to inform sustainable management of fisheries that consider both environmental and human health.

The problems I choose to study with my research group are always identified and driven by partners, primarily fishers themselves. I mostly work in rural communities that have traditionally been marginalized and silenced in decision-making. As such, I take seriously the subject matter that I study and whose voices are heard, my position as a settler on stolen Narragansett Land (where my university is based), and the troubling colonial history of my scholarly fields (e.g., fisheries science and management, conservation science). I try to always think and take action about how this implicates me in ongoing dispossession.

I currently hold a joint appointment at the University of Rhode Island with the Department of Fisheries, Animal & Veterinary Sciences and the Department of Marine Affairs. Before starting at URI in 2015, I completed a very short Postdoctoral Fellowship at the US Environmental Protection Agency. I earned my PhD at Rhodes University (South Africa) in 2014 where my research was based in Kenya and in close collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society. My MS degree is from Louisiana State University, and I completed a BS at the University of Vermont. Growing up in the mountains of southwest Virginia gives me a particular affinity for string music and I spend most of my ‘free time’ chasing waves and surfing.