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Chelsea Hunter
Faculty
Assistant Professor
Sycamore Hall 122
Chelsea Hunter (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Texas and an environmental anthropologist. Her research interests largely center around environmental management and conservation, particularly of marine environments and fisheries, as well as how Indigenous sovereignty can be enacted through policy and management frameworks. She has experience studying collaborative management and conservation of marine resources in the South Pacific, disaster recovery following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, and human-herd demography and sustainability among West African pastoralists, among other topics. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods as well as agent-based modeling in her research. Her research interests are united through a focus on social-ecological systems, a framework which views humans and environments as an integrated system.
Dr. Hunter earned her PhD in Anthropology from the Ohio State University in 2024 as a Distinguished University Fellow. Her dissertation research focused on the relationship between Indigenous sovereignty and co-management of marine environments in Kanaky/New Caledonia, a French Overseas Territory in the South Pacific. During 2024, she served as a Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Sea Grant Program. This position placed her on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries, Climate Change, and Manufacturing, working on fisheries and marine and coastal conservation legislation for the Federal Government as well as overseeing multiple federal agencies, including NOAA and the US Coast Guard.
Dr. Hunter also currently serves as a Chair for the Fisheries and Coastal Communities Topical Interest Group for the Society for Applied Anthropology.
Education
2024, Ph.D., Anthropology, the Ohio State University
2017, M.A., Applied Anthropology, San Diego State University
2013, B.A., Anthropology, Portland State University