Pursuing a PhD degree

Research Areas: Political Ecology, Conservation Finance

Supervisor: Jessica Dempsey

Audrey Irvine-Broque is a PhD Student in the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, where her research focuses on the political economy of biodiversity loss and conservation. Her doctoral project examines sovereign debt as a driver of ecological degradation, aiming to understand how and why proposals at this nexus – from redistributive calls for debt forgiveness to technical efforts to “green” sovereign bonds – are becoming globally dominant, and what their material consequences will be. Through work, political activism, and research, she has long been engaged with efforts to make financial structures better align with social and environmental goals, and is committed to understanding the conditions under which these efforts can or cannot produce just and sustainable outcomes. Her work is supported by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Selected publications

Irvine-Broque, A. & Dempsey, J. (2023). Risky Business: Protecting Nature, Protecting Wealth? Conservation Letters, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12969

Dempsey, J., Irvine-Broque, A., Bigger, P., Christiansen, J., Muchhala, B., Nelson, S., Rojas-Marchini, F., Shapiro-Garza, E., Schuldt, A. & DiSilvestro, A. (2021). Biodiversity targets will not be met without debt and tax justice. Nat Ecol Evol (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01619-5. Also available at: https://rdcu.be/cE6PN.

Irvine-Broque, A., DiSilvestro, A. & Dempsey, J. (2021). The road less travelled: Finance for diverse ecological futures. In: Reparative accumulation? Financial risk and investment across socio-environmental crises. (Eds. Cohen, D., Nelson, S., & Rosenman, E). Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. July 2021. doi:10.1177/25148486211030432“