Eric Nost

I research how data technologies inform environmental governance. New kinds of data-generating sensors and data-synthesizing algorithms are becoming central to everyday life and may prove transformational in policy too.

A key challenge for geographers in the coming years is assessing these technologies’ promise to help society solve sustainability issues related to toxic pollution, food security, climate change adaptation, and ecosystem services conservation.

This will be done by understanding their human dimensions - their design, use, maintenance, and effects on society - alongside other governance trends such as marketization and metrification. It will involve understanding how these data systems came to be but also experimenting with them towards more just and equitable ends.

My work contributes to the field of political ecology and is supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, SSHRC. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in nature-society geography and methods, including in Guelph’s Master’s of Conservation Leadership program.

I am a member of the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), where we bring people together to analyze publicly available socio-environmental data and track the portrayal of climate change issues on the web.

• GEOG*1220 Explaining Environmental Change
• GEOG*2480 Mapping and GIS
• GEOG*3440 GIS for Decision-Making
• GEOG*4480 Contemporary Geographical Thought
• CONS*6030 Conservation Tools and Technology
• GEOG*6091 Geographical Research Methods II
• GEOG*6340 Human-Environment Relations

A full list of publications is available on Google Scholar.

Rojas, A.A., L. Vera, S. Hansen, E. Nost, S. Wylie, C. Alder, and EDGI. 2025. Infrastructuring Care: Co-Designing Computational Notebooks for Environmental Data Justice. Science, Technology, and Human Values.

Luque-Ayala, A, R. Machen, E. Nost. 2024. Digital natures: New ontologies, new politics? Digital Geography and Society.

Glaros, A., D. Thomas, E. Nost, E. Nelson, and T. Schumilas. 2023. Digital Technologies in Local Agri-Food Systems: Opportunities for a More Interoperable Digital Farmgate Sector. Frontiers in Sustainability.

Nost, E. and E. Colven. 2022. Earth for AI: A Political Ecology of Data-Driven Climate Initiatives. Geoforum.

Goldstein, J. and E. Nost, eds. 2022. The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics. University of Nebraska Press.

Duncan, E., A. Glaros, D. Ross, & E. Nost. 2021. New but for whom? Discourses of innovation in precision agriculture. Agriculture and Human Values.

Machen, R. and E. Nost. 2021. Thinking algorithmically: The making of hegemonic knowledge in climate governance. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

I am always interested in hearing from prospective Master's and PhD students with shared interests. Students should be interested in conducting interviews, document analysis, surveys, and/or statistical and spatial analysis for their research. I can offer training in communication skills - including mapping, data visualization, and public writing - and in the scholarly fields of political ecology and science and technology studies. Students would have the opportunity to collaborate with the Environmental and Data Governance Initiative and other partners. Former graduate students have gone on to work in academia and in the conservation and environmental NGO sectors.

I welcome interested candidates to email me with a brief statement of interest, an unofficial transcript, and a writing/research sample.

• Hope Jesmer (MA-thesis) (2025)
• Noah Singer (MA-project) (2024)
• Mahya Ashtiani (MA-thesis) (2023)
• Alex Glaros (PhD) (2023)
• Jill McIntyre (MA-thesis) (2021)
• Aidan O’Brien (MA-thesis) (2021)