Workshop Mentors: Om Katel

Om Katel is working as a lecturer at the Department of Forestry, College of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan since 2010 and has been teaching modules on; Applied Conservation Science, Wildlife Science, Integrated Watershed Management, Geographical Information System and Natural Resource Economics to undergraduate students of forestry and has been involved in research related to conservation and management of natural resources in and outside of national parks. Mr Katel has traveled more than 30 countries while doing his PhD at Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand.

Mr Katel completed his Bachelors degree with honors in Botany from Kalimpong College, India, received his Masters in Mycology and Plant Pathology from Darjeeling Government College, University of North Bengal, India. He was a visiting research student at Norwegian University of Biological Sciences and a summer School Student at the University of Oslo, Norway, in 2009 and 2010. Mr Katel enjoys the network of Youth Encounter on Sustainability (YES), Intensive program on Sustainability (IPoS), International Center for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD), Alliance for Global Sustainability (AGS) and South Asian Network for the Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE). He is also the SANDEE grantee, 2013. Mr Katel’s research interests are wide and he is interested on issues related to environmental conservation and management, watershed modeling, environmental valuation and dynamics of ecosystems linking effects of climate change. He also study human-wildlife interface on how rural people are or are not successful in resolving conflicts with wildlife species.

Workshop Mentors: Verna Miller

I  grew up with very traditionally based paternal grandparents until  I was sent off to residential school.  I became very interested in ethnobotany after reading Thompson  Ethnobotany by my good friend and mentor Nancy Turner.  I did not realize how much knowldge  I had retained despite my long absense from homeland.  The other issue that came  to my attention was the lack of acknowledgement   by researchers who gathered critical information  from Indigenous people  they researched.  My other passion is Intellectual Property  Rights concerning Indigenous people.  In  2006 I was  invited by Kelly  Bannister to Thailand to  be part  of the Ethics Committee; this was the turning point for getting involved with the ISE.  Since then I have been a member.

Workshop Mentors: Gary Martin

Gary Martin, the Director of the Global Diversity Foundation, has been involved in conservation and ethnobotanical work for over thirty years. He has engaged in applied research and training in more than forty-five countries. After studying botany as an undergraduate, he received his MA and PhD in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. From 1998 – 2011, Gary was a research fellow and lecturer at the School of Anthropology and Conservation of the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. Between 2010-2012, he was a Carson Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Society and Environment in Munich, Germany. Since 2011, he has been the Director of the Global Environments Summer Academy and is the creator of the incipient Global Environments Network. He is a native speaker of English, also speaks Spanish and French, and is learning Moroccan Arabic.

Workshop Mentors: Kelly Bannister

Kelly Bannister will lead our activities about research ethics and partnerships. Here is an overview of her session called: "A Relational Ethics Approach".

If ethics is about how we treat one another, then research ethics is about how we treat one another within a research relationship. Approaching research as a partnership compels us to consider even more deeply the nature of the research relationship.  So how ought we treat one another in research partnerships? In ethnobiology, it’s a question that arose amid great controversy in the 1990’s in response to outcries of ‘biopiracy’ or the misappropriation of Indigenous peoples’ traditional plant knowledge. Thus began a paradigm shift for many ethnobiologists who not longer viewed Indigenous and local communities as “sources of traditional knowledge and resources for extraction” but as local experts, rights-holders and integral partners in biocultural research. This shift, led by ISE elders such as the late Darryl Posey, inspired global efforts to create precedent-setting ethical guidance, such as the Code of Ethics of the International Society of Ethnobiology (2006 with 2008 additions). Over the last couple of decades, great strides have been made in raising awareness of the complex suite of intertwined ethical and legal issues, codifying helpful ethical guidance in the form of principles and practices, and creating practical tools to address competing interests, concerns and rights - all intended to assist us in treating one another ethically and equitably in community-university collaborations. Yet most of us still struggle with ethical dilemmas, conflicts, and differences that arise as part of the inevitable uncertainties and lived reality of our research endeavors, particularly in cross cultural research that is situated at a university - and perhaps especially as junior scholars. In this interactive session, we aim to make partnership research ethics more meaningful by exploring a “relational ethics” approach that builds on the concept of “ethical space” proposed by Cree philosopher Willie Ermine (Ermine 2000) and the value of “mindfulness” that underlies the ISE Code of Ethics. Workshop participants will be invited to share their own cultural and philosophical understandings of how we ought to treat one another in our research partnerships, perhaps inspiring us to relate to one another and think about our research partners in new ways.

Workshop Mentors: Jon Corbett

Jon Corbett will lead our activities related to balancing academic and practical research outcomes. 

Here is a description of his workshop session: 

Using an example from a community-based research project that I worked on from 2006 - 2012, I will begin this session by discussing some of the complexities that I have faced undertaking research with Indigenous communities (40 minutes with questions). I will talk about brokering relationships between the community and the university, balancing personal and research needs and managing collaborator expectations. I will reflect on how these complexities transform as I have matured as a researcher, from doctoral to post-doctoral student, through to assistant and then associate professor. After my presentation, we will split into smaller groups and allow participants to share some of own experiences (20 minutes). The composition of small groups will reflect the diversity of students at different stages of their studies (masters, doctoral and post-doctoral). Small groups will then report back to the full group, there will be time for reflection (30 minutes).

Workshop Mentors: Alain Cuerrier

Alain Cuerrier is an ethnobotanist from the Montreal Botanical Garden. He has collaborated with a number of First Nations in Canada, especially on such disciplines as medicinal plants, climate change and health.

Alain Cuerrierwill lead a workshop session to talk about supporting a new generation of ethnobiologists. The session on supporting a new generation of ethnobiologists will be based upon an informal discussion among all participants, a discussion triggered by the experience of mentors but fuelled by each participant’s project and experience as young ethnobiologists from different countries. If the weather permits, a short walk outside will take place in order to further exchange about the different contexte in which ethnobiology can play an important role.