Karena (Kara) Shaw is Professor in the School of Environmental Studies, Academic Director of the Transformative Climate Action Certificate and the UVic Sustainability Scholars Program, and a member of the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems. Her current research and teaching focus on the social and political dynamics of responses to climate change, with a particular focus on how energy transitions can support communities that are more just and supportive of ecological, social, and cultural thriving. Although rarely exclusively focused on water, her research has consistently focused on water-related resource conflicts, for example around forestry, shale gas, and energy infrastructure expansion, typically framed through Indigenous-led initiatives and priorities. She has an abiding interest in governance, and a deep curiosity about how it is being reimagined through innovations at the watershed scale.
