Professor Christina Hicks

Professor

Research Overview

Christina is an Environmental Social Scientist interested in the relationships individuals and societies form with nature; how these relationships shape people’s social, environmental, and health outcomes; and how they create sustainable livelihood choices. Christina is a professor within the Political Ecology group at Lancaster University’s Environment Centre. She gained her PhD in 2013 from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University; after which she held an Early Career Social Science Fellowship at the Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University. Christina main source of research funding conmes from an ERC Starting Grant: FAIRFISH, and she was awarded the 2019 Philip Leverhulme Prize for Geography. Christina’s work is global with particular field sites on the east and west coasts of Africa and in the Pacific.

Profile

Recent and current research

Christina’s current research examines small scale fisheries, how they contribute nutritional, cultural, and wellbeing benefits, and their vulnerability to climate change. This research sits within LEC's Tropical Futures Research Challenge and addresses three themes: 1) Ensuring socially and ecologically sustainable access to fisheries nutrition; 2) Integrating social theories into ecosystem services research and, 3) Building fisheries governance capacity.

Christina has published >40 peer reviewed publications in these areas, available through her Google Scholar Profile. She has given keynote and plenary presentations at the 2nd World Small Scale Fisheries Congress and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Sciences Symposium, and has led or been involved in successful funding bids from ESPA, Rockefeller Foundation, MASMA, and NCCARF.

Christina works in collaboration with Academic, Governmental, and non-profit organisations in the Geographies in which she works; including WorldFish, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute and Seychelles Fishing Authority.

Other affiliations

Adjunct Research Fellow: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University

Affiliated Researcher: Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University

Professional Role

Editorial Board Member for Western Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Scinece
LEC Athena Swan lead

Current Teaching

Christina teaches primarily on LEC’s geography courses and convenes LEC 225 People and the Sea

Additional Information

Select media

Video: Cinner et al 2016 in Nature video coverage by Reuters in The Washington Post ‘Some Coral Reefs are Actually Thriving’

Web: Hicks et al 2016 in Science covered by the Huffington Post ‘Why Human Wellness is Critical to Combatting Climate Change’

Seminars Online

Bevan Series Talk 2018

Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Services

Current Students

Marleen Schutter, ‘Transitions in ecosystem service values’, PhD
Anna Woodhead, ‘Capturing Ecosystem Service delivery’, PhD
Jacqueline Lau: Winners and Losers in Coral Reefs: Ecosystem Services, Equity and Institutions, PhD
Emmanuel Mbaru, ‘Using fisheries dependent data and socio-economic indicators to develop ecosystem based fisheries management tools’ PhD
Emily Malsack, ‘Aquarium fish Trade in the Philippines’, MSc (research)
Rebecca Turley, ‘Aquarium fish Trade in the Philippines’, MSc (research)
Alice Craven, ‘Are the most nutritious fish accessible to the poor?’ MSci