Nicole Venker

Nicole is a PhD student in the Department of Natural Resources. Her dissertation research engages critical geography methodologies to study the politics of access to land, “wilderness,” and wild food in North America. Through this work, she is interested in better understanding relations that shape opportunities for and inequities in access to land and wildlife resources. This project explores access as it relates to the experiences of migrant communities, specifically from Myanmar, as well as the shifting dynamics of access in an increasingly digitized world. In addition to her dissertation work, she is working on a collaborative project using critical GIS methods to understand the spatial dimensions of armed conflict in Myanmar. She works with Katie Fiorella (chair), Jenny Goldstein, Bruce Lauber, and Peter McIntryre. Nicole holds an MS in Natural Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BS in Environmental Science & Sustainability from Cornell University. She has previously worked in environmental consulting and higher education in Myanmar. She also freelances as a Burmese language interpreter/translator and is active in diasporic organizing. In her free time, she enjoys fishing and painting.