Annie E.A. Welden

Animal Infrastructure: The animals enrolled as Nature-based Solutions

Annie is a DPhil candidate at the School of Geography and the Environment, conducting critical social science research on the emerging trend of Nature-based Solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. She is a more-than-human geographer, investigating the interconnections and politics between human, animal, environment, and infrastructure within Nature-based Solutions projects and policies. She currently grounds her theory in the cases of beaver reintroductions and regenerative agriculture, developing a more-than-human go-along methodology and elaborating concepts such as multispecies collaboration. Ultimately, she hopes the balance of her research outputs between theory and practice contributes to the development of better and more equitable Nature-based Solutions.

Annie is also a research collaborator on interdisciplinary projects centred on social science in environmental research, transformative change in Nature-based Solutions, and policy engagement for biodiversity, among others. She has worked within and outside the institution, conducting contracted research for organisations like the WWF, Unearthodox, the IIED, and the Oxford Policy Engagement Network. She is also affiliated with Oxford's Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery.

Passionate about teaching, Annie has been a TA for the MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance, supporting and administering the teaching of the course. She also developed and administered an optional reading group for the MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance, titled 'Climate Change in a More-than-Hu(man) World'. Further, she is an external tutor at Keble College, teaching undergraduates on Human Geography and Geographical Thought, and an external tutor for the Department's undergraduate Geographies for the Anthropocene elective.

Annie holds a MPhil in Nature Society and Environmental Governance from Oxford and a B.A. in Communication Studies and Science and Technology Studies from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Awards & Funding

• 2021-23: Rotary International Global Grant Scholarship
• 2020-23: Keble College Sloane-Robinson Graduate Scholarship
• 2019-20: Rotary International Global Grant Scholarship
• 2019-20: Keble Association Study Award Grants
• 2017: Academic Excellence Award, Cal Poly College of Liberal Arts
• 2017: Outstanding Academic Achievement Award, Communication Studies Department
• 2017: Outstanding Service Award, Communication Studies Department

Journal Articles

• Chausson, A., Welden, E.A., Melanidis, M., Gray, E., Hirons, M., Seddon, N. (2023) Going beyond market-based mechanisms to finance Nature-based Solutions and foster sustainable futures. PLOS Climate.
• Cusworth, G., Lorimer, J., and Welden, E.A. (2023) Farming for the Patchy Anthropocene: The spatial imaginaries of regenerative agriculture. The Geographical Journal.
• Welden, E.A. (2023) Conceptualising Multispecies Collaboration: Work, animal labour and Nature-based Solutions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.
• Welden, E.A. and Besel, R.D. (2022) 'Women need not apply:' Sylvia Earle, binary oscillations, and the ecofeminist rhetoric of Mission Blue. Feminist Media Studies.
• Welden, E.A., Chausson, A. and Melanidis, M. (2021) Leveraging nature-based solutions for transformation: Reconnecting people and nature. People and Nature.

Public & Policy Engagement Papers

• Montana, J., Gopalakrishna, T., Welden, E.A., Rosaria, Canney, S., Chausson, A., Farhadinia, M., Girardin, C., Martinez Del Rio, M., Passoni, G., Prouchet, L., and Zepeda, C. (2021) Academic policy engagement for biodiversity needs to take transdisciplinarity seriously. True Planet, University of Oxford.
• Chausson, A., Welden, E.A., and Melanidis, M. (2021) Leveraging Nature-based Solutions for transformation: Reconnecting people and nature (commentary). Mongabay.
• Montana, J., Gopalakrishna, T., Rosaria, Welden, E.A. (2021) As nature climbs up the political agenda, how can researchers better engage with policy on biodiversity? School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford.

Conference Papers and Posters

• Welden, E.A. (2023) Animals in/as Nature-based Solutions. Panelist on the 'Animals in/as Climate Changed Geographies' panel at the Royal Geographical Society-IGB Annual International Conference, London, UK.
• Welden, E.A. (2023) The (Dirty) Labour of Regeneration: Muck, mud, and the making of animal infrastructure. Paper presented in the 'Dirt, labour, death, and the more-than-human' session at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
• Welden, E.A. (2021) Accessing Animal Infrastructures. Paper presented in the 'Multispecies methods for more-than-human worlds' panel at the Royal Geographical Society-IGB Annual International Conference, London, U.K.
• Welden, E.A. (2021, June). Beaver Biopolitics: Rhetorics of death, not-death, and life in beaver infrastructures. Paper presented at the International Environmental Communication Association's Conference on Communication and the Environment, Virtual.
• Welden, Emma A. (2020, September). Animal Infrastructures as Post-Carbon Infrastructure in the Anthropocene. Paper presented at the Royal Anthropological Institute's Conference on Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present, and Future, British Museum, London, U.K.
• Welden, Emma A. (2020, July). Working with Beavers: Possibilities for multispecies collaborations in NbS Infrastructures. Poster presented at the Nature-based Solutions Initiative's Digital Dialogues Conference, University of Oxford, U.K.
• Welden, Emma A. (2020, April). Legal Challenges and Possibilities for Future Nature-based Solutions: The case of REDD+. Presented at the Oxford Biodiversity Network, University of Oxford, U.K.
• Welden, Emma A. (2019, November). Animal Infrastructures: Conceptualising Opportunities for Human-Animal Collaborative Conservation. Paper presented at Keble College Graduate Discussion Evening, University of Oxford, U.K.
• Welden, Emma A. (2019, June). Women, Climate, and Sea-Level Rise: An ecofeminist approach to move above the surface of soft law stagnation. Paper presented at the International Environmental Communication Association's Conference on Communication and Environment, University of British Columbia, Canada.
• Welden, Emma A. (2017, July). 'Women Need Not Apply:' Sylvia Earle, Ecofeminism, and the (Dis)empowering Rhetoric of Mission Blue. Paper presented at the International Environmental Communication Association's Conference on Communication and Environment, University of Leicester, U.K.