AUSTIN HUMPHRIES (he/him)

Associate Professor

I lead an academic research group that studies interactions within and between people and the sea. We collect data using a variety of methods including underwater fish counts, fisheries landings, fisherman interviews, household surveys, and dietary recalls. These data inform statistical and simulation models aimed at improving our understanding of trade offs among fish population dynamics, fisher well-being, and food security. We primarily work in small-scale artisanal fisheries across the tropics. The goal is that our research is used to inform sustainable management of fisheries that consider both environmental and human health.

The problems I choose to study with my research group are always identified and driven by partners, primarily fishermen themselves. I work in communities of color and take seriously the subject matter that I study, my position as a settler on stolen Narragansett Land (where my university is based), and the troubling colonial history of my scholarly fields (e.g., fisheries science and management, conservation science). I try to always think and take action about how this implicates me in ongoing dispossession.

I currently hold a joint appointment at the University of Rhode Island with the College of Environment and Life Sciences and the Graduate School of Oceanography. Before starting at URI in 2015, I completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the US Environmental Protection Agency. I earned my PhD at Rhodes University (South Africa) in 2014 where my research was based in Kenya and in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society. My MS degree is from Louisiana State University, and I completed a BS at the University of Vermont. Growing up in the mountains of southwest Virginia gives me a particular affinity for string music and I enjoy fishing, surfing, and woodworking.