Christian Kull
Position
Associate Professor
Contact
Building: Off-campus until late 2012
Room Number:
Phone:
Fax:
Email: Christian.Kull@monash.edu
Website/blog: http://christiankull.net/
Qualifications
- PhD (2000) in Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
- MS (1996) in Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- MA (1995) in Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Fulbright Scholar (1992-3) in Geography, University of Oslo, Norway
- BA (1991) in Geography and Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Professional Association
Background
I focus on three broad research programs that investigate the social processes that transform landscapes:
1. Environmental transformations and their causes. I investigate changes in land use and land cover and their social driving forces. I'm currently working on two projects under this theme. The first uses aerial photography to analyse land use change in highland Madagascar. The second investigates the movements of plants - whether cultivars or invasive species - around the world and how they shape regional landscapes. This project focuses on the case of acacias and baobabs in the Indian Ocean region.
2. The politics of conservation and development, specifically with respect to natural resource management. Based in a political ecology approach, I investigate how different interest groups, such as rural farmers, state foresters, and NGOs, struggle over natural resource management in the interests of livelihoods, development, and conservation. For example, I’ve investigated historical conflicts between peasants and the state over fire and conservation in Madagascar, current difficulties with community-based natural resource management, and conflicts of interest in managing invasive species.
3. Fire management: local practice, science, and policy. Fire is both incredibly destructive and naturally renewing, a problematic hazard and key management tool. I investigate competing approaches to fire management in Madagascar and Australia.
I collaborate with colleagues in the School of Geography and Environmental Science's Political Ecology Research Group in researching a wide variety of changing and contested environments.
Research Interests
- environment and development
- political ecology, cultural ecology
- community-based natural resource management
- social aspects of environmental transformations
- land-use change and environmental history
- struggles over natural resource access and character
- landscape burning and fire management
- invasive species and plant movements
- Africa, Madagascar, and the Indian Ocean region
Selected Publications
For full list of publications (including links and/or pdfs), please go to my personal web site
Altangerel, Khulan & Christian A. Kull (in press) The prescribed burning debate in Australia: conflicts and compatibilities. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.
Kull, Christian A. and Haripriya Rangan (2012) Science, sentiment and territorial chauvinism in the acacia name change debate. 197-219 in S.G. Haberle and B. David (eds), Peopled Landscapes: Archaeological and Biogeographic Approaches to Landscapes. Terra Australis 34. Canberra: ANU E-Press. Kull, Christian A., Jacques Tassin, Sophie Moreau, Hervé Rakoto Ramiarantsoa,
Chantal Blanc-Pamard & Stéphanie M. Carrière (2012) The introduced flora of Madagascar. Biological Invasions. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-011-0124-6.
Bowman, D.M.J.S., and 17 others (2011). The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. Journal of Biogeography 38:2223-2236.
Kull, Christian A., and 19 others (2011). Adoption, use and perception of Australian acacias around the world. Diversity and Distributions 17 (5):822-836.
Carruthers, Jane, Libby Robin, Johan Hattingh, Christian Kull, Haripriya Rangan, Brian W. van Wilgen (2011). A native at home and abroad: the history, politics, ethics and aesthetics of Acacia. Diversity and Distributions 17 (5):810-821.
Rangan, Haripriya, Christian A. Kull, and Lisa Alexander (2010). Forest plantations, water availability, and regional climate change: controversies surrounding Acacia mearnsii plantations in the upper Palni Hills, southern India. Regional Environmental Change 10 (2): 103-117.
Rangan, Haripriya and Christian A. Kull (2010). The Indian Ocean and the making of Outback Australia: an ecocultural odyssey. 45-72 in Indian Ocean Studies: Cultural, Social, and Political Perspectives (eds.) S. Moorthy and A. Jamal. London: Routledge.
Dressler, Wolfram, Bram Büscher, Michael Schoon, Dan Brockington, Tanya Hayes, Christian A. Kull, James McCarthy, and Krishna Shrestha (2010). From hope to crisis and back again? A critical history of the global CBRNM narrative. Environmental Conservation 37 (1): 5-15.
Aitken, Michelle, Haripriya Rangan, and Christian A. Kull (2009). Living with alien invasives: the political ecology of wattle in the eastern highveld Mpumalanga, South Africa. Etudes Océan Indien 42-43: 115-141.
Kull, Christian A. & Paul Laris (2009). Fire ecology and fire politics in Mali and Madagascar, pp. 171-226 in Mark A. Cochrane, ed. Tropical Fire Ecology. Springer-Praxis, Heidelberg, Germany.
Bowman, D.M.J.S., and 21 others. (2009). Fire in the earth system. Science 324 (5926):481-484.
Rangan, Haripriya & Christian A. Kull, (2009) What makes ecology ‘political’?: rethinking ‘scale’ in political ecology. Progress in Human Geography 33 (1): 28-45.
Scanlon, Lauren & Christian A. Kull, (2009). Untangling the links between wildlife benefits and community-based conservation at Torra Conservancy, Namibia. Development Southern Africa 26 (1): 75-93.
Kull, Christian A. (2008). Saving the land with spades: human landscape transformations in the central highlands. 113-35 in Greening the Great Red Island, ed. J.C. Kaufmann. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa.Kull, Christian A. & Haripriya Rangan, (2008). Acacia exchanges: wattles, thorn trees, and the study of plant movements. Geoforum 39 (3): 1258-72.
Kull, Christian A. (2008) Who should vote where? Geography and fairness in migrant voting rights. Geographical Research 46 (4): 459-65.
Kull, Christian A., Jacques Tassin, Haripriya Rangan (2007). Multifunctional, scrubby, and invasive forests? Wattles in the highlands of Madagascar. Mountain Research and Development 27 (3): 224-31.
Kull, Christian A., Camellia K. Ibrahim, and Thomas C. Meredith (2007). Tropical forest transitions and globalization: neoliberalism, migration, tourism, and international conservation agendas. Society and Natural Resources. 20 (8): 723-37.
Kull, Christian A. (2004). Isle of Fire: the Political Ecology of Landscape Burning in Madagascar. University of Chicago Press, 324pp.
Funded Projects
• Australian Research Council Discovery Project, “The enigma of arrival: movements of the mimosa bush and the baobab across the Indian Ocean into pre-British Australia” (with H. Rangan, & D. Murphy, 2010-2012).
• Australian Research Council Discovery Project, “Australian transplants: the political ecology of Acacia exchanges across the Indian Ocean” (with H. Rangan, 2006-2008).
Research Staff and Students
Our ARC funded project on the movements of plants into pre-British Australia involves Karen Bell, a post-doc based at the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, and Tom Bach, a PhD student.Current and recent research students and their topics:
Tom Bach (current PhD) Indigenous management of alien plants in northwest Australia
Sindhu Dhungana (current PhD) Community forestry and payment for environmental services, Nepal (associate supervisor)
Peter Cabena (current PhD) Belief systems, non-economic benefits, and the protection of wildlife in northwest India (lead supervisor)
Mark Thomson (current MA) Transboundary water governance in the Mekong: mediating conflict or cooperation? (associate supervisor)Praveena Rajkobal (MEnvSc, 2011) Citizen engagement in environmental governance: desalinization as an urban water planning initiative in Victoria, Australia (associate supervisor)
Usman Shah (MA, 2009) Bringing order to the jangal: state building, social change, and international intervention in Afghanistan’s Kunduz River Basin (associate supervisor)
Herlina Hartanto (PhD, 2009) Adaptability of customary forest institutions in Kerinci, central Sumatra (associate supervisor)
Utami Irawati (MIDEA, 2009) Natural resource management in South Kalimantan: evaluating local policies and regulations with respect to indigenous ecological knowledge
Pheakkdey Nguon (MIDEA, 2009) Clean Development Mechanism projects for afforestation in Cambodia
Khulan Altnagerel (MBA, 2009) Who should be responsible for risk management in bushfires: the Australian example
Lana Kagan (BEnvSc Hons, 2009) Sustainable viticulture in Victoria (co-supervisor)
Kiran Shinde (PhD, 2008) The environment of pilgrimage on the sacred site of Vrindavan, India (associate supervisor)
Anna Egan (MA, 2008) Doing right by country: Prickly trees, cattle and camels in Northwest Queensland (co-supervisor)
Michelle Aitken (MSc, 2008) Livelihoods, poverty reduction, and invasive wattles in Mpumalanga, South Africa (co-supervisor)
Eric Kissel (MIDEA, 2008) Delivery models for community solar power in humanitarian development
Lauren Scanlon (BEnvSc Hons, 2006) Linking benefits and community participation in wildlife management in Namibia
Remy Kinna (BA Hons, 2006) Ecotourism and community participation at Mariepskop/Blyde, South Africa (co-supervisor)
Karen Jones (BSc Hons, 2005) Gully erosion in Madagascar: GIS analysis and farmer interviews
Teaching Responsibilities
(not teaching in 2012)
ATS2628 Power and poverty: international development in a globalised world
ATS3554 Resource evaluation and management
ATS3553 Field studies in regional sustainability
Prizes and Awards
• Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research by Early Career Researchers, Faculty of Arts, Monash University (2009
• Dean’s Commendation for Excellence in Teaching, Faculty of Arts, Monash University (2008
• Dean’s Teaching Award, Faculty of Arts, Monash University (2007
• James M. Blaut Award in recognition of innovative scholarship in cultural and political ecology, as demonstrated by publication of Isle of Fire (Cultural and Political Ecology Speciality Group, Association of American Geographers, 2005)