Julia A. Bingham
PhD, Marine Science and Conservation

I am a PhD Candidate in the Murray Lab at the Duke University Marine Lab. I am an interdisciplenary social scientist broadly interested in coastal ecosystems and communities and human-nature relationships. My research interrogates the processes by which decisions are made in fishery governance and coastal management, and the implications those processes have for coastal communities. I particularly focus on the roles of local and traditional ecological knowledges, science, and environmental values in addressing social-ecological challenges. I primarily draw from fields of political ecology and critical human geography in my work, and am informed by Indigenous methodologies and literature in feminist studies, environmental sociology, and conservation ecology.

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My dissertation research focuses on knowledge integration in salmon fishery governance on the west coast of Vancouver Island B.C. I conduct the research with the permission and collaboration of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and Ha'oom Fishing Society. I am also engaged in research projects regarding social values and narratives of oyster aquaculture in North Carolina, and in developing equity assessments for coastal restoration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

Before moving into the social sciences, I was trained in intertidal ecology at Oregon State University. Through research experiences where I worked with multiple stakeholders and local communities, my interests expanded to the human dimensions of coastal systems. 

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Positionality

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I am a white academic researcher with a western, settler lived experience working with Indigenous communities in Indigenous spaces. My engagement in my current research can serve to either disrupt or to perpetuate the harmful colonial legacies which echo throughout  governance, societal, and academic spaces, and I am responsible for the effects of my actions and work felt in the communities I work with. Efforts towards decolonization must be led by Indigenous communities with the support of non-indigenous people who hold power and privilege.

I engage in my research with care to follow the leadership, permissions, and interests of my Indigenous collaborators and can wherever possible support their path towards self-determination. I work with the intent to act as an ethical ally to my Indigenous colleagues but never to speak for their experiences or interests. Relationship building centered on trust, respect, and reciprocity is core to my work. I extend immense gratitude for the guidance, patience, and trust of my Indigenous partners in our work and research together.

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My academic studies are conducted in the unceded ancestral lands of the Coree people, the Eno, and the Occaneechee band of the Saponi Nation. My home is based on the ancestral territory of the Wiyot Tribe. My dissertation research is conducted within the ha`houthli (traditional territory) of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations with intent to support the Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations' path towards self determination through agency in fisheries governance.