My primary research interests include climate change perceptions and adaptation, management of common-pool resources, and policy and practice related to conservation and sustainability. Along with colleagues at several U.S. and international institutions, I have an NSF-funded Dynamics of Integrated Socio-environmental Systems (DISES) project that is examining linkages between climate change, land management, landscape, and policy to understand how to sustain small-scale pastoral systems in a changing world. The project runs through 2027 and will offer several interdisciplinary training opportunities to graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher. At UGA, I am engaged with the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems and the Center for Integrative Conservation Research.
I will be accepting PhD students for Fall 2025 whose interests are related to human-environment interactions and climate change. If you are interested in working with me, please send your CV and a brief statement of your research interests (no more than 500 words) via email.
Research
- Political ecology
- Knowledge co-production
- Climate change
- Extreme weather
- Sea-level rise and coastal populations
- Common pool resources
- Interdisciplinary & team science
- Communication of science
Selected Publications
Welch-Devine, M., B. Burke, C. Steacy, and S. Rzonca. 2022. Environmental change in Southern Appalachia: Local ecological knowledge across residential groups. Ambio. 51:280-290.
Welch-Devine, M., A. Sourdril, and B. Burke. (eds). 2020. Changing Climate, Changing Worlds: Local knowledge and the challenges of social and ecological change. Basel, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
Burke, B., M. Welch-Devine, and A. Sourdril. 2020. Understanding microexperiences of climate change: How climate ethnography informs collaboration, adaptation, and effective responses. (Introduction). In Changing Climate, Changing Worlds: Local knowledge and the challenges of social and ecological change. M. Welch-Devine, A. Sourdril, and B. Burke, eds. Pp. 1-13. Basel, Switzerland: Springer Nature.
Welch-Devine, M. and B. Orland. 2020. Is it time to move away? How hurricanes affect future plans. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. 38(1): 54-76.
Rickless, D., X. Yao, B. Orland, M. Welch-Devine. 2019. Assessing social vulnerability through a local lens: An integrated geovisual approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 110(1): 36-55.
Full list available here.
Education
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Georgia 2008
MS Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development, University of Georgia 2009
Doctorat Ethnologie, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour 2008
