Jennifer Silver

I am a social scientist with training and research expertise in environmental policy and politics, ocean governance, evidence and options for socially-informed fisheries management, and socio-cultural dynamics at the intersection of rapid environmental and technological change. I have published over 40 peer reviewed articles and collaborate within several transdisciplinary groups working to sustain important connections between coastal people and ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest of Canada and the United States. I am regularly called upon for comment and advice by journalists, decision-makers, and organizations in the non-profit and non-governmental sectors. I hold a BA and MA in Geography, and my PhD, in Resource and Environmental Management, was granted by the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University.

If you are an excellent student, share one or more of the research interests above, and are seeking a graduate or postdoctoral supervisor, please feel free to contact me about research opportunities in the Nature.Culture.Politics research group. I am also an Associate Editor at the journal Conservation and Society. We are always looking for empirical and theoretically informed papers that explore linkages between society, environment and development, so please consider submitting your work!

Keywords: Ocean governance; Fisheries management, coastal communities and settler colonialism; Digital technology and environmental change; Political ecology.

• GEOG 1220: Human Impact on the Environment
• GEOG 2510: Canada A Regional Synthesis
• GEOG 2230: Commodity Chains and Cultures of Consumption
• GEOG 3020: Global Environmental Change
• GEOG 3030: Media, Digital Technology and Environment
• GEOG 4210: Environmental Governance
• GEOG 4220: Local Environmental Management
• GEOG 4690: Geography Field Research
• GEOG 4880: Contemporary Geographic Thought
• GEOG 4990: Independent Study in Geography
• GEOG 6060: Special Topics in Geography
• GEOG 6091: Introduction to Geographical Research Methods II

Drope, N., Morin, E., Kohfeld, K., Ianson, D., & Silver, J. J. (2024). Media representations and farmer perceptions: a case study of reporting on ocean acidification and the shellfish farming sector in British Columbia, Canada. Environmental Communication, 18(4), 406-417.

Hawkins, R., & Silver, J. J. (2023). Following Miss Costa: Examining digital natures through a shark with a Twitter account. Digital Geography and Society, 5, 100066.

Drakopulos, L., Silver, J. J., Nost, E., Gray, N., & Hawkins, R. (2023). Making global oceans governance in/visible with Smart Earth: The case of Global Fishing Watch. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 6(2), 1098-1113.

Silver, J.J., Okamoto, D.K., Armitage, D., Alexander, S.M., Atleo, C., Burt, J.M., Jones, R., Lee, L.C., Muhl, E.K., Salomon, A.K. and Stoll, J.S. 2022. Fish, people, and systems of power: understanding and disrupting feedback between colonialism and fisheries science. The American Naturalist, 200(1), 168-180.

Silver, J. J., & Stoll, J. S. 2022. A framework for investigating commercial license and quota holdings in an era of fisheries consolidation, concentration and financialization. Marine Policy, 143, 105179.

Drakopulos, L., Silver, J.J., Nost, E., Gray, N., & Hawkins, R. 2022. Making global oceans governance in/visible with Smart Earth: The case of Global Fishing Watch. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 25148486221111786.

Blythe, J. L., Armitage, D., Bennett, N. J., Silver, J.J., & Song, A. M. 2021. The politics of ocean governance transformations. Frontiers in Marine Science. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2021.634718

Clark, K., Hawkins, R., and Silver, J.J. 2020. Nature, nation and gender: resource nationalism on reality television. Environment and Planning E, 3(4). doi: 10.1177/2514848619899785

Artelle, K., Chan, D. Brown, K., and Silver, J.J. 2020. Letter: Haíɫzaqv First Nation herring fishery closure a cautious community-led approach to COVID-19. Science Letters. doi: 10.1126/science.abd2107.

Kwok, Y.K.E., Krishna, K.C., Fraser, E., and Silver, J.J. 2020. Perceptions of gender dynamics in small-scale fisheries and conservation areas in the Pursat province of Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 61(1), 54-70. doi:10.1111/apv.12225

Bennett, N., Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M., Blythe, J., Silver, J.J., Singh, G., Andrews, N., Calò, A., Christie, P., Di Franco, A., Finkbeiner, E.M., Gelcich, S., Gray, N.J., Guidetti, P., Harper, S., Hotte, N., Kittinger, J.N., Le Billon, P., Lister, J., Lopez de la Lama, R., McKinley, E., Scholtens, J., Solas, A-M., Sowman, M., Talloni-Alvarez, N., Teh, L.C.L., Voyer, M., Sumaila, U.R. 2019. Charting a sustainable and equitable course for the blue economy. Nature Sustainability, 1–3. doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0404-1.

Silver, J.J. and Stoll, J. 2019. How do commercial fishing licenses relate to access? Fish and Fisheries 20: 993-1004.

Berdej, S., Armitage, D., and Silver, J.J. A political ecology perspective on bridging organizations influencing marine conservation in Indonesia. 2019. Society and Natural Resources (in press).

Kwok, Y.K.E., Krishna, K.C., Fraser, E., and Silver, J.J. 2019. Perceptions of gender dynamics in small-scale fisheries and conservation areas in the Pursat province of Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint (in press).

Armitage, D., Okamoto, D., Silver, J.J., Francis, T. Davies, I., Levin, P.S., Cleary, J., Dressel, S.C., Jones, R., Kitka, H., Lee, L., McIsaac, J., Poe, M., Punt, A.E., Reifenstuhl, S., Shelton, A.O., Schmidt, J., Siple, M.C., Thornton, T.F., Voss, R., Woodruff, J. 2019. Integrating governance and quantitative evaluation of resource management strategies to improve social and ecological outcomes. BioScience 69: 523-532.

MacCall, A.D., Francis, T.B., Armitage, D., Cleary, J., Dressel, S.C., Jones, R., Kitka, H., Lee, L., Levin, P.S., McIsaac, J., Okamoto, D., Poe, M., Punt, A.E., Reifenstuhl, S., Shelton, A.O., Schmidt, J., Silver, J.J., Siple, M.C., Thornton, T.F., Voss, R., Woodruff, J. 2019. A heuristic model of learned migration behavior exhibits distinctive spatial and reproductive dynamics. ICES Journal of Marine Science 76: 598-608.

Silver, J.J. and Campbell, L.M. 2018. Conservation, development and the blue frontier: The Republic of Seychelles’ Debt Restructuring for Marine Conservation and Climate Adaptation Program. International Social Science Journal 68: 241-256.

Blythe, J., Silver, J.J., Evans, L., Armitage, D., Bennett, N., Moore, M-L., Morrison, T., Brown, K. The dark side of transformation: latent risks in contemporary sustainability discourse. Antipode 50: 1206-1223.

Fraser-Celine, V-L., Hovorka, A., Silver, J.J. 2018. Human conflict over wildlife: exploring social constructions of African Wild Dogs (Lycaon Pictus) in Botswana. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 23: 341-358.

Punt, A.E., Okamoto, D.K., MacCall, A.D., Shelton, A.O., Armitage, D.R., Cleary, J.S., Davies, I.P., Dressel, S.C., Francist, T.B., Levin, P.S., Jones, R.R., Kitka, H., Lee, C.L., McIsaac, J.A., Poe, M.R., Reifenstuhl, S., Silver, J.J., Schmidt, J.O., Thornton, T.F., Voss, R., Woodruff, J. 2018. When are estimates of spawning tock biomass for small pelagic fishes improved by taking spatial structure into account? Fisheries Research 206: 65-78.

Silver, J. J., & Hawkins, R. 2017. “I’m not trying to save fish, I’m trying to save dinner”: Media, celebrity and sustainable seafood as a solution to environmental limits. Geoforum, 84, 218-227.

Hawkins, R., & Silver, J. J. 2017. From selfie to# selfie: Nature 2.0 and the digital cultural politics of an internationally contested resource. Geoforum, 79: 114-123.

VonderPorten, S., Silver, J.J., Lepofsky, D., McGregor, D. 2016. Recommendations for marine herring policy in Canada: Aligning with asserted Indigenous legal and inherent rights. Marine Policy 74: 68-76.

Campbell, L.M., Gray, N.J., Fairbanks, L., Silver, J.J., Gruby, R. L., Dubik, B.A., & Basurto, X. 2016. Global oceans governance: New and emerging issues. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41: 517-543.

Silver, J.J., Gray, N.J., Campbell, L.M., Fairbanks, L.W., Gruby, R.L. 2015. Blue Economy and Competing Discourses in International Oceans Governance. Journal of Environment and Development 24(2).

Silver, J.J. 2014. From fishing to farming: Shellfish aquaculture expansion and the complexities of ocean space on Canada's west coast. Applied Geography 54: 110-117.

Silver, J.J. 2014. Shellfish and coastal change: Pacific oysters and Manila clams in BC waters. BC Studies 181.

Campbell, L.M., N.J. Gray, L.W. Fairbanks, J.J. Silver, and R.L. Gruby. 2013. Oceans at Rio+20: Success or Failure? Conservation Letters 6(6): 439-447.

Silver, J.J. 2013. Neoliberalizing coastal space and subjects: On shellfish aquaculture projections, interventions and outcomes in British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Rural Studies 32: 430-438.

Pinkerton, E. and J.J. Silver. 2011. Cadastralizing or coordinating the clam commons? Can competing community and government visions of wild and farmed fisheries be reconciled? Marine Policy 35 (1):63-72.

Campbell, Lisa M., J.J. Silver, N.J. Gray, S. Ranger, A. Broderick, T. Fisher, M.H. Godfrey, S. Gore, K.V.D. Hodge, C. Martin, A. McGowan, P. Richardson, C. Sasso, L. Slade, B. Godley. 2009. Co-management of sea turtle fisheries: Biogeography versus geopolitics. Marine Policy 33: 137-145.

Silver, J.J. and L.M. Campbell. 2005. Perspectives on fisher participation in research: fisher reactions and dilemmas with the use of fisher knowledge. Ocean and Coastal Management 48: 721-741.