I am a geographer interested in the way plants have been moved around by people and how these activities transform landscapes over time. My research usually focuses on ordinary people and tries to understand what motivates them to move plants to new places, how they manage these in their farms, pastures, gardens and gradually change the larger landscapes of their everyday life. This kind of analysis brings together a wide range of methods from history, political economy and ecology, biogeography and regional development.
I am one of many people inspired by Fernand Braudel and his approach to writing geographical history that is not limited by national boundaries, and which looks at seas and oceans as spaces of human movement and interaction. The Indian Ocean is the geographical and historical frame for my research.
Over the past decade, I've worked with colleagues on the transfer of acacia species between Australia, India, South Africa, and Madagascar; and the precolonial arrival of baobabs and mimosa bush across the Indian Ocean to Australia. The most recent project is a comparative study that looks at how indigenous communities in parts of northern Australia, western India, eastern South Africa, and eastern Madagascar think about weeds in their landscapes. All of these projects have been funded by the Australian Research Council.
Experience
2015–present
Associate professor, University of Melbourne
2009–2015
Associate professor, Monash University
2002–2008
Senior Lecturer, Monash University
1999–2001
Lecturer, Monash University
1997–1999
Lecturer, RMIT
1995–1997
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
1993–1995
Postdoctoral fellow, University of California Berkeley
Education
1993
University of California Los Angeles, PhD in Urban and Regional Development
1987
University of California Los Angeles, MA in Architecture and Urban Planning
1983
CEPT, Ahmedabad, India, Masters in Urban and Regional Planning
1981
JNTU, Hyderabad, India, B. Architecture
Publications
2015
New genetic and linguistic analyses show ancient human influence on baobab evolution and distribution in Australia, PLOS ONE
2015
Situating African agency in environmental history, Environment & History
2015
Elusive traces: Baobabs and the African diaspora in South Asia, Environment & History
2015
Food traditions and landscape histories of the Indian Ocean World: Theoretical and methodological reflections, Environment & History
2015
The political ecology of weeds, International Handbook of Political Ecology
2015
The history of introduction of the African baobab (Adansonia digitata, Malvaceae: Bombacoideae) in the Indian Subcontinent, Royal Society Open Science
2014
Chapter: Thorny problems: Industrial pastoralism and managing ‘country’ in Northwest Queensland, Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities, eds. Jodi Frawley and Iain McCalman
2014
Genetic diversity and biogeography of the boab Adansonia gregorii (Malvaceae: Bombacoideae), Australian Journal of Botany
Grants and Contracts
2013
A Weed by any other name? Comparing local knowledge and uses of environmental weeds around the Indian Ocean
Role:
Chief Investigator
Funding Source:
Australian Research Council
2010
The Enigma of Arrival: Movements of the mimosa bush and the baobab across the Indian Ocean into pre-British Australia
Role:
Chief Investigator
Funding Source:
Australian Research Council
2008
Australian Transplants: The Political Ecology of Acacia Exchanges across the Indian Ocean
Role:
Chief Investigator
Funding Source:
Australian Research Council
2003
Exploring the Impacts of Land Use Change on the Medicinal Plant Trade in Southern Africa
Role:
Chief Investigator
Funding Source:
Monash University
1997
The Question of Common-Access Lands and Sustainable Rural Development in South Africa
Role:
Chief Investigator
Funding Source:
National Science Foundation USA
Professional Memberships
Institute of Australian Geographers
Association of American Geographers
African Studies Association of Australasia and Pacific
International Association for the Study of Commons