Kelsey Emard, PhD
Assistant Professor, Geography, Oregon State University
Research
My lab's research supports rural communities' adaptive response to environmental change with a focus on agricultural and coastal livelihoods. We center the role of multi-scalar power dynamics in shaping environmental change and adaptive choices among rural community members. We use a wide range of mixed methods including semi-structured interviews, focus groups, surveys, participatory mapping, textual analysis, soil testing, remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and modeling.
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Current research, in partnership with Colorado State University and the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, examines agriculturalists' adaptive management decisions in Oregon, Colorado, and Iowa and outcomes of adaptation for soils and livelihoods. The study also examines the knowledge sources that agriculturalists draw on in making those decisions, and how models and data can better reflect farmers' knowledge and address their needs.
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Another area of focus examines community co-management of marine protected areas and fishing grounds. This thread of work looks at how local communities exert their voice in the natural resource management of coastal areas, especially as it impacts their livelihoods. This work has included projects in Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica and the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, California.
Other past and ongoing projects have included:
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an examination of land dispossession and environmental risk for Indigenous and Afro-descendant Costa Ricans in the country's coastal Talamanca canton,
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research on the social dimensions of sustainability in the U.S. beef industry, and
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studies of livelihood change in Andean mining communities.
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This art representing the social-ecological landscape of Talamanca, Costa Rica was made by Alister Méndez Venegas of Hone Creek, Talamanca for the Comité Persona Joven Talamanca. Alister worked as a research assistant with me in Costa Rica. Used with permission.
Selected Publications
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2025. Emard, K., & K. Miller. Community perspectives on co-management of marine protected areas: Comparing cases in Costa Rica and Colombia. Journal of Latin American Geography (accepted July 2025).
2025. Emard, K., O. Cameron, E. Hyde, D. Lombardozzi, & W. Wieder. Integrating farmers’ perspectives in climate modeling. Seventh Oregon Climate Assessment, ed. E. Fleishman, 299-304. Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. https://doi.org/10.5399/osu/1181.
2024. Emard, K., O. Cameron, W. Wieder, D. Lombardozzi, R. Morss, & N. Sobhani. Integrating farmers’ perspectives into Earth system model development: Interviews with end users in the Willamette Valley, Oregon to guide actionable science. Weather, Climate, and Society, 16(3): 453-465. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-23-0066.1
2024. Emard, K., C. Edgeley, C. Wölfle Hazard, D. Sarna-Wojcicki, W. Cannon, O. Cameron, L. Hillman, K. McCovey, D. Lombardozzi, S. Pearse, and A. Newman. Connecting local ecological knowledge and Earth system models: Comparing three participatory approaches. Ecology & Society, 29(4):43-57. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-15570-290443
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2023. Emard, K., & V. Gordon. “My planting is to farm community”: Afro-Costa Rican women’s agrarian food practices. In Beyond the Kitchen Table: Exploring the Role of Black Women in Global Food Systems, ed. P. McCutcheon, L. Best, & T. Rajack-Talley. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN: 978-1-4696-7595-4
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2023. Shah, S.H.... K. Emard, et al. Connecting physical and social science datasets: Challenges and pathways forward. Environmental Research Communications. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/acf6b4​
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2021. Gosnell, H., K. Emard, & E. Hyde. Taking stock of social sustainability and the U.S. beef industry. Sustainability, 13, 11860. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111860
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2021. Emard, K., & L. Nelson. Geographies of global lifestyle migration: Towards an anticolonial approach. Progress in Human Geography, 45(5): 1040-1060. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520957723
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2020. Kinkaid, E., K. Emard, & N. Senanayaka. The podcast-as-method? Critical reflections on using the podcast to produce geographic knowledge. Geographical Review, 110(1-2): 78-91. https://doi.org/10.1111/gere.12354
2017. Emard, K.* The impacts of mining on livelihoods in the Andes: A critical overview. The Extractive Industries and Society, 4(2): 410-418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.03.001
*published under old name of K. Brain
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This mural in the Casa de la Cultura Marcus Garvey in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica shows an Afro-Costa Rican representation of their experiences of land uses and livelihood change in coastal Talamanca.