Bernadette P. Resurrección

Bernadette P. Resurrección

Professor and Queen's National Scholar in Development in Practice

PhD (Development Studies), Erasmus University

Mackintosh-Corry Hall, A409

Global Development Studies

Queen's University

People Directory Affiliation Category

Curriculum Vitae (PDF 155 KB)

My current research interests lie within the nexus of feminist political ecology and feminist science studies. Specifically, I am interested to explore the politics of knowledge in gender and sustainable development planning contexts and institutions. To realize this aspiration, I recently completed a co-authored book on gender experts working in environmental and development organizations such as from the CGIAR system, UN, and civil society, where they are charged with advancing gender and social equity and aligning this with visions of sustainable development. The work of gender experts ranges from gender analysis in the planning of technical projects on climate change, disaster risk reduction, energy transitions, pollution and food, land and water insecurity, to the integration of gender variables in geospatial technologies, modelling, scenario- and futures analyses and climate services. In the book, we asked: Is it possible to remain committed to a social transformative agenda, while navigating environment and development bureaucracies and an epistemological interface with positivist science? Does an applied science working context add an additional layer of complexity for gender experts whose ‘object’ of expertise (social and power relations) is assumed to lie outside the purview of natural science? What kinds of conflicted subjectivities and positionalities are embodied by gender experts as they work through everyday dilemmas inherent in doing gender work?

My rationale for pursuing this line of research is to align with current efforts to inquire about those who construct regimes of truth around policy interventions and the positioning of their professional identities and knowledges. I therefore wish to learn more about the social making of science and the politics of knowledge in gender and sustainable development interventions that shape and are shaped by the traveling rationalities of governance between the so-called Global North and South.

My other interest ties in with the ever-growing concern for realizing low carbon futures and positioning a gender and social equity lens in this space. I have recently completed a small research project in West Sumatra, Indonesia exploring the social receptivity of renewable energy installations as they cross with the complex landscape of customary resource rights and livelihoods on one hand; and their alignment (or not) with the wider design for accelerated economic growth by the government of Indonesia, on the other. I believe being in the energy and de-carbonization research sphere opens up opportunities to engage with the very core of what defines modernity and neo-colonialism and efforts to reverse these processes. In short, I am keen to examine sustainability transitions and their tensions and compromises through narratives and policy action, as well as the stubborn lock-ins of fossil fuel dependency from a feminist political ecology lens. What are the opportunities to practice otherwise and transform our understandings of development and well-being?

I welcome students who are interested in and wish to study gender, power and social equity dimensions in

(i) environment and natural resource management (land, food, water, forest, or energy resources),

(ii) risky environments such as climate change and disasters;

(iii) mobile and multiple livelihoods in rural and peri-urban contexts; and

(iv) policy and governance practices in sustainable development

Resurrección, Bernadette and Elmhirst, Rebecca (2021). Negotiating Gender Expertise in Environment and Development: Voices from Feminist Political Ecology. Oxon and New York: Routledge.

Resurrección, Bernadette P. (2019) ‘Water insecurity in disaster and climate change contexts: A feminist political ecology view.’ In L.R. Mason and J. Rigg (eds) People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, Social Justice. Oxford University Press.

Resurrección B.P. et al. (2019) In the Shadows of the Himalayan Mountains: Persistent Gender and Social Exclusion in Development. In: Wester P., Mishra A., Mukherji A., Shrestha A. (eds) The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment. Springer, Cham

Resurrección, Bernadette P and Ha Nguyen (2018) ‘A feminist political ecology prism on development and change in Southeast Asia.” In MacGregor, A., Law, L. and Mackenzie, F. (eds). Routledge Handbook on Southeast Asian Development. Exon and New York: Routledge, pp 261-270.

Resurrección, Bernadette P. (2017) ‘Gender and environment in the Global South: From WED to Feminist Political Ecology.” In MacGregor, Sherilyn (ed). Routledge International Handbook on Gender and Environment. Exon and New York: Routledge, pp 71-85.

Lund, Ragnhild, Doneys, Philippe and Resurrección, Bernadette P. (2015) Gendered Entanglements: Re-visiting Gender in a Rapidly Changing Asia. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS).

Books:

Negotiating Gender Expertise in Environment and Development (Book Cover)Gendered Entanglements (Book Cover)Gender and Natural Resource Management (Book Cover)Water Rights Social Justice (Book Cover)Bio-innovation Poverty Alleciation