Owen Cortner

I am an environmental social scientist and postdoctoral associate in the SPIRES Lab at Yale School of the Environment.

My research and activities are at the intersection of agriculture, ecosystem conservation, and livelihoods. I work closely with farmers, agriculture and forestry agencies, and NGOs and design projects to incorporate geospatial analysis, social and economic indicators, and fieldwork. Methods range from qualitative coding of surveys and texts to causal inference techniques including regression discontinuities and synthetic controls. Throughout my Ph.D. and postdoc, I’ve been studying the drivers and impacts of changes in land use and land cover, particularly in forested regions of the Caucasus and coastal Brazil. As an international development practitioner, I’ve focused mostly on improving the environmental and economic performance of livestock systems, particularly through crop & tree integration, grazing practices, animal nutrition & disease control, and managing wildlife conflicts. I also managed grants for the USAID Horticulture Innovation Lab at UC Davis.

I’m happiest at work when I’m engaged with others with a common goal. I favor research and teaching that is in conversation with a community and which values knowledge from unexpected corners. It’s important to ambitiously find & create value. That value can be for human and more-than-human communities affected by research, for a field of knowledge, and for the researcher(s) & teacher(s) themselves. Future research directions will explore themes around the politics of land system science, economic and social arrangements for conserving biodiversity and adapting to climate change, and supporting practical, local solutions to environmental challenges in agricultural systems. Example research questions:

• How does the expanding reach of economics into every corner of environmental science, including defining biodiversity, affect the theories, methodologies, narratives, and outcomes of environmental research?
• What is the medium- to long-term economic potential of payments for ecosystem services in land management if we assume that economies will have to reach a net-steady or reduced state?
• How are agricultural extension systems in the U.S. evolving under political polarization and an emphasis on technological solutions?

In between academic and research pursuits, I was an English Teaching Assistant at the primary school in Cherok Paloh, Pahang, Malaysia, and a Fulbright program coordinator for the Malaysian-American Commission on Educational Exchange in Kuala Lumpur. When I’m not doing research or laughing at my cats, I hike, snowboard, kayak/SUP, read, compost, and run.