Karen McNamara

Karen is a Professor of Development Geography in the School of the Environment, deeply committed to understanding how people experience and respond to the interconnected challenges of poverty, disaster risk, and climate change. Over the past 20 years, she has led applied research on resilient livelihoods, non-economic loss and damage, community-based adaptation, human mobility, and gender—working closely with governments and NGOs across the Asia-Pacific region. Her research has supported farmers in Aceh rebuilding after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; assisted newly settled migrants in Dhaka displaced by flooding and erosion; collaborated with Elders in the Torres Strait to record traditional environmental knowledge; and documented everyday climate impacts and adaptation stories in rural communities throughout the Pacific Islands.

Karen has advised multiple governments and international organisations on adaptation, loss and damage, and human mobility. She currently serves on the Expert Group on Non-Economic Losses for the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage under the UN Climate Change Secretariat. Her recent contributions include a world-first conceptualisation of loss and damage in the Pacific Islands (as part of an ARC Future Fellowship); research on climate-related human rights violations (as part of work for the Vanuatu Government); identification of optimisation points for adaptation outcomes (as part of an ARC Linkage); and strategies to support women in disaster recovery (in collaboration with UN Women).

She has led or co-led 29 research and capacity-building grants totalling over $7.6 million, funded by the ARC, Australian Government, DFAT, National Geographic, OECD, Scope Global, UNDP, and others. Karen has published more than 125 academic papers and book chapters, alongside over 85 reports, commentaries, and policy briefs. She has supervised 14 PhD students to completion (9 as Principal Advisor), many of whom now hold influential roles in academia, government, the UN, and consultancy. She currently supervises 5 PhD students and teaches core courses in environmental management.

Karen proudly hails from Quirindi, Kamilaroi Country, on the Liverpool Plains in NSW. Her upbringing in a small, close-knit rural town sparked a lifelong interest in social, development, and environmental issues affecting rural communities.