Mairi is a doctoral student in UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management's Division of Society and Environment, with a designated emphasis from the Folklore Graduate Group. She is a data driven storyteller, seedkeeper, writer, and researcher working at the intersection of food systems, capital, land, natural resource management & governance, and community-based, culturally relevant economic development. Mairi has been conducting food systems research since 2019 and is currently exploring issues of ocean governance, property rights, and capital in relation to marine aquaculture and the seafloor. This research includes network analysis of historical and contemporary relationships and access to the seafloor using oral histories in Folklore and Humanities archives.
Prior to UC Berkeley, Mairi led and collaborated on research projects for community-based organizations across the United States, with a focus on regional food systems development, traditional ecological knowledge and ecosystems management, environmental education at tribal colleges and universities, and equitable finance. She has experience conducting research across a variety of geographies in the United States and Latin America, with a particular focus on the Northern Great Plains. Mairi works with methods from the social sciences and humanities, including archival, ethnographic, and community-based, participatory methods, as well as socio-ecological systems, econometric, and network analyses.
