Dr. Katja Grötzner Neves, Lic. BA Honours; MA; PhD
Professor, Sociology and Anthropology
Professor/Professeure titulaire
Biography Research activities: Currently Funded Research Publications Teaching activities Participation activities Previously Funded Projects Professional Awards In the News: Mass Media

Phone: | (514) 848-2424 ext. 5190 |
Email: | katja.neves@concordia.ca |
Availability: |
Please enquire via email |

Biographic Note
DR. KATJA NEVES is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. With Gregory Bateson’s thinking as the basis of her epistemological approach, Professor Neves is passionate in her quest to understand the socio-ecological dynamics by means of which we live within our planet’s more than human world. Her earlier work studied the social, political, historical, and cultural ecologies of human relations with whales and dolphins in the Azores, Portugal, vis-à-vis neoliberal co-optations of marine biodiversity conservation. Theoretically grounded in social studies of science, critical environmental studies, and political ecology, Professor Neves’s more recent research has focused on the reinvention of botanic gardens as significant agents in the governance of biodiversity conservation. Generously financed by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC Canada), this research has resulted in a single authored 2019 book with State University New York Press (SUNY) titled “Postnormal Conservation: Botanic Gardens and the Reordering of Biodiversity Governance”. Professor Neves is currently writing a new book tentatively titled “Cultivating the ‘Anthropocene’: Ecologies, Aesthetics, and Political Economies of Suburban Gardening”. Professor Neves has also started a new multi-media, multi-stakeholder, project that explores the challenges, conundrums, and rewards of teaching and learning in the ‘Anthropocene’.
Research activities: Currently Funded Research
SSHRC Insight Grant 2016-2021 Summary Description
Natural resources, biodiversity, and conservation became increasingly important loci of governance throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Environmental governance continues to grow in importance in light of now ubiquitous concerns about global climate change, biodiversity loss, and shifting geo-political interests pertaining to purportedly untapped natures. In this context the range of actors with stakes in environmental governance is fast expanding with institutions such as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), botanic gardens, seed banks, arboreta, natural science museums, and zoos being (re)invented as key players in biodiversity conservation. Recent scholarly contributions have focused on accounting for the politics of representation and knowledge that these transformations entail. However, an international SSHRC-funded conference we organized in the Fall of 2014 concluded that comprehensive scholarly scrutiny of these institutions as a new class of environmental governance actors remains incipient. The conference also confirmed the urgent need for scholarly theorization of these emerging agents of biodiversity conservation given the considerable scope of their influence on environmental governance.
Lead by Dr. Neves this collaborative research project redresses this gap, with botanic garden biodiversity conservation governance as a starting point. To be sure, botanic gardens have taken pole position in the governance of plant biodiversity conservation on national and transnational levels. The Convention on Biodiversity Conservation (CBD) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have mandated botanic gardens with crucial biodiversity conservation tasks. National governments, including the government of Canada, rely on botanic garden networks to help develop and implement core conservation mandates. With botanic gardens assuming such central positions in environmental governance the following core questions inform the research project here proposed: 1) How do distinct botanic gardens, national governments, and international institutions conceptualize botanic garden biodiversity governance and to what effects? 2) How do different biodiversity discourses inform this governance and how are they spatialized along power relations within and between botanic gardens? 3) How do disparate botanic garden conservation rationalities materialize in the production of natures, educational curriculum and practices, and what knowledge-power dynamics do these processes entail?
Building on several successful SSHRC-funded projects by the PI (Dr. Katja Neves) and the research project’s team members “Botanic Gardens and the Politics of National and Transnational Environmental Governance” proposes a groundbreaking interdisciplinary approach to newly emerging systems of environmental governance. It submits the first comprehensive study of the national and global arrangements of governance that have coalesced around Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and member botanic gardens. The project also distinguishes itself by its innovative methodological approach and extensive student training at university levels that range from the undergraduate to the post-doctoral. Its findings will be of great relevance to established scholars, students, NGOs, governments, and the general public which are all increasingly asked to participate in conservation. In the final instance the project will lay the foundation for an expanded international collaborative program of research that will tackle comparatively natural science museums, zoos, arboreta, and seed banks.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters
SINGLE AUTHORED SCHOLARLY BOOKS EDITED SCHOLARLY BOOKS PUBLISHED EDITED COLLECTIONS PUBLISHED JOURNAL ARTICLES, BOOK CHAPTERS, ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES
Teaching activities
Courses Design and Teaching, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
- Contemporary Cultural Theory SOCI 403 (2015; 2016; 2018)
- The Governance of 'Nature' and the nature of Governance: Botanic Gardens, Natural Science Museums, and Zoos. SOCI/ANTH 398 (2018)
- Nature, Conservation, Development, and Capitalism SOCI 637 2012; 2013
- Contemporary Issues in Economy, Society, and Biodiversity SOCI/ANTH 277 (2014; 2015; 2017; 2019)
- Contemporary Socio-Environmental Issues SOCI/ANTH 319 (2011-2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; 2017; 2019)
- Qualitative Research Methods, SOCI 613 (Graduate Level), 2010; 2012
- Qualitative Research Methods, SOCI 415, 2004-2010; 2012-2013
- Undergraduate Honors Seminar, SOCI 409, 2007-2009
- Self and Subjectivity: Human-Environment, SOCI 652, 2007
- Environmental Sociology, SOCI 398, 2005-2007
- Graduate Colloquium, SOCI 660, 2005-2006
- Introduction to Society, SOCI 203, 2004-2005
Course Design and Teaching, Institute fuer Ethnology, Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg, Germany
Maritime Anthropology, 2004
- Theory, Practice, Knowledge and Power, 2004
- Anthropology and Literature, 2003-2004
- Conducting Preliminary Research in Anthropology, 2003-2004
- Anthropological Approaches to Contemporary Issues, 2003
- Reflecting Anthropology: History of Anthropology through the Lives of Anthropologists, 2004
- Anthropology of Museums, 2002-2003
- Culture, Identity, and Tradition: Reappraisal, 2002-2003
- Writing Ethnography, 2002
- Research Methods, 2002
- Advanced Theoretical Anthropology, 2001-2002
- Environmental Anthropology, 2001-2002
Participation activities
Guest Talks, Conference Organization, and Regular Conference Papers
Conference/Panel Organization Conference Presentations and Guest Talks
Previously Funded Projects
Previously Funded Projects
External Competitive Funding
2016-2021 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant $ 203,417 (PI)
2014 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connections Grant $ 17 260 (PI)
The Emergence of Botanic Gardens as Leaders in the Governance of Biodiversity Conservation
2014 Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science $ 3 000 (PI)
The Emergence of Botanic Gardens as Leaders in the Governance of Biodiversity Conservation
2012-2015 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) standard research grant $ 66 976.00 (PI - Sole applicant)
Cultivating Biodiversity: the politics of knowledge, education, and practice at botanical gardens in the age of nature conservation
2012-2014 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant $ 50 894.00 (PI - Sole applicant)
From Backstage to Forefront: A pilot study on the re-invention of botanical gardens as stewards of Canadian biodiversity conservation and designers of tomorrow’s Eco-citizenry: the politics of knowledge, education, and practice at botanical gardens in the age of nature conservation
2007-2010 Fonds Quebecois de Recherche sur la Societe et la Culture (FQRSC), $32,624.00 (PI - Sole applicant)
Programme Établissement de Nouveaux Professeurs-chercheurs (Quebec Research Fund for the Study of Society and Culture - program for the support of new research-faculty)
Est-il possible d'assurer la résilience des collectivités malgré ́puisement des ressources et les conditions de marché défavorables? La restructuration économique dans une perspective écologique.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Post Doctoral Fellowship, $35,000/year, 2004-2006 (PI - Sole applicant)
Declined by candidate upon receiving tenure-stream position at Concordia University, Montreal
Junta Nacional de Investigacao Cientifica e Tecnologica (JNICT), Portugal, PhD Scholarship, $160,000, 1995-2000 (PI - Sole applicant)
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), PhD Scholarship, $12,000/year, 1996-2000 (PI - Sole applicant)
Declined by candidate upon receiving JNICT scholarship
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, PhD Scholarship, $10,000/year, 1996 (PI - Sole applicant)
Declined by candidate upon receiving JNICT scholarship
York University, Special Admissions Scholarship, $3,000, 1995
Junta Nacional de Investigacao Cientifica e Tecnologica (JNICT), Portugal, MA Scholarship, $48,000 plus enrolment fees, 1994-1995 (PI - Sole applicant)
The University of Western Ontario, Special University Scholarship, $8,000, 1993-1995
Concordia University Competitive Funding
2015 Individual Seed Grant Office of the Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies $ 7 000 (PI - Sole applicant)
Transforming the Global Order of Biodiversity Governance: Botanic Gardens and the Politics of Transnational Governance
2014 Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic Affairs Special Conference Support $ 4 000 (PI)
The Emergence of Botanic Gardens as Leaders in Biodiversity Conservation.
2014 Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic Affairs Special Conference Support $ 2 000 Sabbatical Research Grant (PI - Sole applicant)
2013 Aid to Research Related Events, Exhibition, Publication and Dissemination Activities (ARRE) Program $ 5 000 (PI)
The Emergence of Botanic Gardens as Leaders in Biodiversity Conservation. Principal Applicant (co-applicants: Peter Stoett; Jill Didur; Dayanadan Selvadurai)
2010 Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic Affairs Special Conference Support $ 10 000 Sabbatical Research Grant (PI - Sole applicant)
2004 Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic Affairs Special Conference Support $ 15 000 Star-up Fund (PI - Sole applicant)
Professional Awards
Professional Awards
Outstanding Service Award 2013 by the Canadian Sociological Association for my services as Treasurer of the Association from 2009 to 2013.
In the News: Mass Media
In the News
Video Interview with Neuchatel University (Switzerland) about the role of Botanic Gardens as socio-cultural agents of environmental governance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=AIXDIvZbcso
Interview for Concordia News with Brent Frederick Botanic gardens lead the way in biodiversity conservation and eco-citizenry Concordia to host the Leaders in Conservation: Botanic Gardens and Biodiversity in the 21st Century conference. http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2014/10/15/botanic-gardens-leadthewayinbiodiversityconservationandecocitize.html October 2014
Interview for Devoir — Economie Section (main french language newspaper in Quebec). Interview titled: Faire the la Ville un Jardin. April 29th 2013 http://www.ledevoir.com/economie/actualites-economiques/376869/faire-de-la-ville-un-jardin
Does Horta’s Patrimony Constitute Heritage of Universal Value? Expert interview for Azorean Television Network, broadcast through Portugal’s International TV network. March 18th 2011.
Featured in ‘Petroleum Economies in the Age of Environmental Concern’ 2011. Documentary by Professor Conny Davidsen (University of Calgary) details of this project available at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~literacy/project.htm
The Guardian Newspaper UK, article by Naomi Klein, June 19th 2010. Refers to my work on the notion of Sacred in environmental thinking based on an interview she did with me in the spring of 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jun/19/naomi-klein-gulf-oil-spill
Radio interview on the Cosmopolitan Dimensions of Horta Faial’s Cable Communications Legacy (August 6th 2010, Azores-Portugal radio broadcast).