As QUT celebrates Sustainability Week, we congratulate Dr Katie Woolaston who has been awarded the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) Clay Morgan Award for Best Book in Environmental Political Theory.
Ecological Vulnerability: The Law and Governance of Human–Wildlife Relationships examines human-wildlife conflict as a primary contributor to wildlife extinction and a manifestation of the destructive relationship that people have with wildlife.
About the book
Humans are responsible for biodiversity loss in many related and sometimes conflicting ways. Human-wildlife conflict, commonly defined as any negative interaction between people and wildlife, is a primary contributor to wildlife extinction and a manifestation of the destructive relationship that people have with wildlife. Dr Woolaston presents this ‘wicked’ problem in a social and legal context and demonstrates that legal institutions structurally deny human-wildlife conflict, while exacerbating conflict, promoting values consistent with individual autonomy, and ignoring the interconnected vulnerabilities shared by human and non-human species alike. It is the use of international and state law that sheds light on existing conflicts, including dingo conflict on K’Gari-Fraser Island in Australia, elephant conflict in Northern Botswana, and the global wildlife trade contributing to COVID-19. This book presents a critical analysis of human-wildlife conflict and its governance, to guide lawyers, scientists and conservations alike in the transformation of the management of human-wildlife conflict.
The book is available in hard cover format from Cambridge University Press.
About the award
The WPSA Clay Morgan Award for Best Book in Environmental Political Theory recognizes outstanding scholarship, published in a book-length monograph, which utilizes the resources, literatures, and approaches of the field of political theory to address intersections between contemporary or historical environmental challenges on the one hand and the philosophical and ideological concepts, principles, and debates animating political life on the other. While the focus of the award is on political theory, they welcome books that make a contribution to the field from related disciplines – including, but not limited to, anthropology, environmental humanities, ethnic studies, geography, indigenous studies, philosophy, political economy, science and technology studies, or sociology.
Find out more.
About Katie Woolaston
Dr Katie Woolaston is an inter-disciplinary researcher, lawyer and Senior Lecturer in the School of Law at QUT. She holds a Masters in Law (specialising in Human Rights & Social Justice) from the University of New South Wales, and a PhD in Environmental Law from Griffith University.
Dr Woolaston’s research is focused on international and domestic wildlife law and the regulation of the human-wildlife relationship. She is particularly interested in using the social sciences to resolve long-held and deeply-rooted attitudes and values that are contrary to conservation and embedding such processes in law and policy.
You can find out more about Katie Woolaston on her QUT academic profile.
