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  • Geography
  • Environmental Governance
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  • Minor in Applied Geomatics
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  • Geography MA/MSc
  • Geography PhD
  • Master of Conservation Leadership
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  2. Eric Nost

Eric Nost

Eric Nost

Associate Professor

College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics

enost@uoguelph.ca
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Research Areas

  • Political ecology
  • Environmental governance
  • Webmapping

Research Interests

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.

Courses Taught

  • 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

Select Publications

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.

Student Supervision

  • 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)