Bundanon

Dr Leah Gibbs is fascinated by people’s interactions with nature. Her research focuses on cultural practices and values, and on the politics and processes of governing environments. She is particularly interested in how people negotiate ‘troublesome encounters’ with nature; be that how people use and value water in arid landscapes, negotiate protection of species that may pose a threat to human life, or make decisions about invasive species in the context of growing environmental change and uncertainty. Leah is a human geographer, but her research emerges from training across the discipline of geography and Indigenous Studies. This training has shaped her interest in learning and communication across the disciplines and with broader audiences. Leah is a field-based researcher with experience working in arid and temperate Australia, northern Britain, and Tanzania.

Gibbs was in residence at Bundanon in 2018 with Dr. Sarah Hamylton, Dr. Lucas Ihlein and Kim Williams. Using art-science collaboration to communicate climate change research in ways that engage with peoples’ values, the group used their residency to reveal opportunities for and barriers to environmentally sustainable practice. Adopting the social-environmental case study of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), they explore the efficacy of maps, drawings and story-telling for communicating how recent environmental changes are impacting the reef.