Chelsea Hunter

 Chelsea Hunter (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Texas. She 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 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 (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.

 

Dr. Hunter’s research interests center on human-environment relationships and how policy and culture mitigate people’s lives and livelihoods as well as sustainability outcomes. 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 among West African pastoralists, among other topics. She uses qualitative and quantitative methods as well as agent-based modeling in her research.

 

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