This summer, Michelle worked as a Summer Student with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa while working on her thesis (“Understanding Discourses around the Sustainability and Morality of the Alberta Beef Industry”). Michelle worked on gender equality and social inclusion issues and provided support to IDRC-funded programs throughout the Global South that work to help build equitable, inclusive and sustainable food systems in the context of climate change.

All summer long, Olivia has been conducting interviews and workshops with criollo smallholders in the province of Santiago del Estero in the Argentine Dry Chaco, in order to better understand dynamics of land control, migrations, and social-ecological feedbacks for her PhD research. She is collaborating with the Instituto de Ecología Regional of the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán.

In August, Patrice submitted MSc thesis investigating changes in rural populations' access to surface water in the Pilcomayo Basin due to the expansion of large-scale agriculture. The thesis takes a close look at water access in the Pilcomayo Basin, a part of the Gran Chaco. Being able to access places with water is hugely important for smallholder livelihoods in the Chaco. Patrice deployed advanced techniques to map the presence of surface water and then analyze changes in the ability of smallholders to access that water, as more and more of it gets enclosed by large farms. With her thesis complete, she used the rest of the summer to relax and enjoy lots of time outdoors (and occasionally hang out with some small, winged visitors). At the start of the fall term, she began editing her thesis for publication, so she remains active in the lab as an alumna - stay tuned for a paper to come out of this!