Abigail York
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Phone: 480-727-6889
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School of Human Evolution and Social Change BUILDING 274 TEMPE, AZ 85287
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Mail code: 2402Campus: Tempe
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Over the last two decades, Abigail York built a research program focused on the governance of social-ecological systems scaling from the local to the global. With approximately $35.5 m in funding from the National Science Foundation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and United States Department of Agriculture (approximately $2.5m in personal recognition), York leads large transdisciplinary teams that work to reveal and test the underlying factors leading to collective action. In 49 peer-reviewed publications, York has explored urbanization, the persistence of premodern cities and neighborhoods, management of community forestry in the USA and Nepal, collaborative adaptive management, fracking in Appalachia, agriculture and Western water issues in the USA, and, most recently, adaptation to sea ice change in the Arctic.
York leads the $3m NSF funded ARC-NAV: Arctic Robust Communities-Navigating Adaptation to Variability. The team includes eight faculty collaborators, one post-doctoral fellow, five graduate students, and seven undergraduate students at the University of Northern Iowa, Columbia University, McGill University, and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Through coproduction of science with local and Indigenous communities and regional stakeholders in Chukotka and Kamchatka, Russia and Alaska, USA the team seeks to 1) understand how diverse communities and stakeholders perceive changing conditions and frame uncertainty associated with sea ice variability, 2) document and understand change in the "hot spots" of sea ice variability, 3) unpack the multi-level governance of this complex system, and 4) explore how to the design a better -- and more flexible -- governance and built infrastructure to adapt to changing Arctic conditions.
York co-leads several efforts to advance transdisciplinary education (see Sustainability Developing Change Agents: Innovative Practices for Sustainability Leadership co-edited with Kristi L. Kremers, Alexander S. Liepins). At ASU, Nancy Grimm and York seek to revolutionize the way we train graduate scholars for careers in the Anthropocene by co-leading and building the Earth System Science for the Anthropocene (ESSA) Graduate Education Network in the Global Future Lab. Challenges of this new age require systems thinking and convergence across disciplines in collaborative team science. ESSA scholars will recognize diverse ways of knowing and the societal and cultural underpinnings of Anthropocene challenges that enable effective communication beyond the academy and a focus on solutions that are just and equitable. ESSA scholars will design their curricula to incorporate these elements and engage together in problem-based learning. Graduate students seeking to join York's research group or to learn more about the ESSA network should contact her to set up a time to discuss opportunities.
York is committed to developing students' ability to conduct and understand empirical social science in their everyday lives as global citizens and for their future diverse career paths. She is deeply committed to increasing access to hands-on research opportunities for all undergraduate students, especially ASU's Online Students. ASU undergraduate students are encouraged to apply to be a part of York's research team through SHESC's Research Apprentice Program.
York is a founding member of A Network for Graduate Leadership in the Environment and Sustainability (2017-, directed the Environmental Social Science PhD program (2014-2018), was the Associate Director with the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes (2014-2018), served as on the Executive Committee in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (2019-2020), is on Executive Committee of the Central Arizona Phoenix-Long-term Ecological Research Site (2016-), and currently represents over 125 external affiliates as the External Representative on the Workshop Advisory Committee for the internationally recognized Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University (2019-).
- Ph.D. Public Policy, Indiana University
- B.A. Economics, Knox College
