Alexander Zahara

Office: Chat Lab, CS Portable 1017
Telephone: (709) 864-2966
Fax: (709) 864- 3119
email: ardz76[at]mun[dot]ca
Website: alexzahara.wordpress.com

Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Arn Keeling (Memorial, Geography)
Dr. Lianne Leddy (Laurier Brantford, Indigenous Studies)
Dr. Max Liboiron (Memorial, Geography)
Dr. Nicole Power (Memorial, Sociology)

Education:

First Nations University of Canada, Continuing Studies (2020)
Visiting Research Fellow, Alfred Deakin Institute (2018)
Master's of Environmental Studies, Queen's University (2015)
Bachelor of Science in Biology (Hons), University of Saskatchewan (2012)
National Student Exchange, University of Hawai'i at Hilo (2011)

Title of Project:
Worlding Fire Management: An Examination into Wildfire Policy and Practice in Northern Saskatchewan


Project Description:
When anthropogenic climate change combines with historical forestry and fire management practices, wildfires burn in ever changing ways. In what is now known as the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, wildfires are differentially felt by the majority Indigenous people (Cree, Dene, Dakota, Métis) who live in the province’s Boreal Forest region. In the last 5 years, Indigenous and northern lobbying and protest groups have formed around wildfire issues, describing them not as an issue of scientific versus traditional knowledge, but one of sovereignty over traditional lands and livelihoods.
This project examines the history of wildfire management policy and practices in Northern Saskatchewan focusing on my home community of kistapinānihk or Prince Albert, SK. While most research has focused on the impact of wildfires on Northern communities, this project focuses on wildfire management itself. The purposes of the project are to:
• Better understand the social and historical context of wildfire management policies and practices.
• Contextualize how wildfire management practices make possible particular ways of living in forested areas
• Examine opportunities for wildfire management to address issues raised by northern residents, and critically reflect on the ethics of community engaged research practices.

This project will contribute to a broader understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of wildfire management, which may assist local organizations in developing best practices for managing fires in a context of changing wildfire activity and controversy.


Social Science and Humanities Publications
• Zahara, Alex (2020). ‘Breathing fire into landscapes that burn: Wildfire Management in a time of Alterlife’. Engaging Science Technology and Society, 6: 555-585.
• Neale, Timothy., Zahara, Alex., and Smith, Will. (2019). An Eternal Flame: The Elemental Governance of Wildfire’s Pasts, Presents and Futures. Cultural Studies Review 25(2), 115-134. (Open Access)
• Zahara, Alex. (2018). On Sovereignty, Deficits and Dump Fires: Risk Governance in an Arctic ‘Dumpcano’ in Sarathy, B., Hamilton, V. and Brodie, J. (eds.) Inevitably Toxic: Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure, and Expertise. University of Pittsburgh Press. P.259-283.
• Hird, Myra J. & Zahara, Alex. (2017). The Arctic Wastes. In R. Grusin (ed.) Anthropocene Feminism. University of Minnesota Press. P. 121-145. Available, here.
• Liboiron, Max., Ammendolia, Justine., Winsor, Katerine., Zahara, Alex., Bradshaw, Hillary., Melvin, Jessica., Mather, Charles., Dawe, Natalya., Wells, Emily., Liboiron, France., Fürst, Boyan., Coyle, Coco., Saturno, Jacquelyn., Novacefski, Melissa., Westscott, Sam., & Liboiron, Grandmother. (2017). Equity in Author Order: A Feminist Laboratory’s Approach. Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, 3, 1-17. (Open access)
• Zahara, Alex. & Myra J. Hird. (2015). Raven, Dog, Human: Inhuman Colonialism and Unsettling Cosmologies. Environmental Humanities, 7, 169-190. (Open access)

Scientific Publications
• Liboiron, Max., Zahara, Alex., Hawkins, Kaitlyn., Crespo, Christina., Neves, Bárbara., Wareham-Hayes, Vonda., Edinger, Evan., Muise, Charlotte., Walzak, Mary Jane., Chidley, Jillian., Mills, Carley., Watwood, Lauren., Arif, Hridisha., Earles, Elise., Pjiogge, Liz., Shirley, Jamal., Jacobs, Jesse., McCarney, Paul., & Charron, Louis. (2021) ‘Abundance and types of plastic pollution in surface waters in the Eastern Arctic (Inuit Nunangat) and the case for reconciliation science’. Science of the Total Environment. DOI: 0.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146809
• Liboiron, France., Ammendolia, Justine., Saturno, Jacquelyn., Melvin, Jessica., Zahara, Alex, Richard, Natalie, and Max. Liboiron. (2018). A zero percent plastic ingestion rate by silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis) from the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 118, 267-275. Available, here.
• Liboiron, Max., Liboiron, France., Wells, Emily., Richard, Natalie., Zahara, Alex., Mather, Charles., Bradshaw, Hillary. & Murichi, Judyannet. (2016) Low plastic ingestion rate in Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) from Newfoundland destined for human consumption collected through citizen science methods. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 113, 428-437. Available, here.
• Zahara, Alex., Michel, Nicole., Flahr, Leanne., Ejack, Leanne., & Morrissey, Christy. (2015). Latent cognitive effects from low-level PCB exposure in juvenile European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 34, 2513-2522. Available, here.
• Flahr, Leanne., Michel, Nicole., Zahara, Alex., Jones, Paul, & Morrissey, Chirsty. (2015). Developmental exposure to Aroclor 1254 alters migratory behaviour in juvenile European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) Environmental Science and Technology, 49, 6274-6283. Available, here.

Public Writing:
Submission to the Australia Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements #NND. 001.00928. (with Timothy Neale, Will Smith and Jessica Weir) Accepted via Notice to Give.
• ‘A Bibliography of Trash Animals’. Discard Studies. 17 February, 2020.
• Ethnographic Refusal: A How-To Guide’ Reprinted in José Roca (ed.) Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest. Miami, FL: NAME Publications.
Book review of ‘Reassembling Rubbish: Worlding Electronic Waste by Josh Lepawsky, MIT Press.’ Canadian Geographer 63(4): e34-e35.
Myths of the Circular Economy. (with Gay Hawkins, David Boarder Giles and Catherine Phillips).Discard Studies. November 18, 2019.
Placing discard studies in Australia. (with Catherine Phillips, David Boarder Giles, and Gay Hawkins). Discard Studies. November 11, 2019.
Queering Chemicals (EDCs). Discard Studies, 15 April 2019
When your research is attacked. Discards Studies, 24 January 2019.
Against Risk Perception. Discard Studies. 1 October 2018
• ‘Categories aren’t these things that are just there’ (with Elise Earles and KJ Sheppard), Lady Science. 15 July 2018.
Difference in the Anthropocene: Indigenous Environmentalism in the Face of Settler Colonialism Discard Studies. March 14th. 2017. Originally published on Boundaries of the Human in the age of the Life Sciences blog.
Ethnographic Refusal: A How-To Guide. Discard Studies. August 8th, 2016.
Anthropocene Adjustments: Discarding the Technosphere. (with Jesse Peterson) Discard Studies. 26 May 2016.
Refusal as Research Method in Discard Studies. Discard Studies. 23 March 2016.
• Bringing Waste to Public Spaces: A Discussion with Artist Keeley Haftner. Discard Studies. 7 July 2014.

Awards:
• SSHRC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement (2018)
• Society for History of Technology Fellow (2017)
• Dr. Alan MacPherson Award in Historical and Cultural Geography (2016)
• Memorial University Dean’s Excellence Award (2016-2018)
• SSHRC J.A. Bombardier Doctoral Award (CGS-D, 2016-2018)
• Queen’s Environmental Studies Graduate Scholarship (Sept 2014)
• SSHRC J. A. Bombardier Master’s Award (CGS-M 2014-2015)

Research Groups:
Discard Studies (editor)
Northern Exposures
Civic Lab for Environmental Action Research