Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Martina Jakubchik-Paloheimo is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) at York University, facilitating a collaborative project on human-polar bear coexistence in Hudson Bay and James Bay with Omushkego communities along the coast. Her community-engaged research supports Omushkego Knowledge (kiskêyihtamowin/ᑭᐢᑫᔨᐦᑕᒧᐃᐧᐣ) and Polar Bear Conservation in a community-led project to identify the drivers of, and effective mitigation strategies for, human-polar bear interactions.
Martina is a feminist scholar from Tkaronto who conducts decolonizing research to support the rights of nature. She is a second-generation white settler whose grandparents were born in Finland and Hungary. Martina completed her Ph.D. research in collaboration with members of the Shuar community in what is now known as the Ecuadorian Amazon. Her research focused on supporting the maintenance of Shuar science and territory to advance human and planetary health. She is passionate about Indigenous-led conservation strategies for biodiversity conservation, socio-ecological restoration, and climate change adaptation.
Prior to beginning her Ph.D. in 2019, Martina was an internationally trained mediator, community-based researcher, peacebuilder, and restorative justice practitioner dedicated to advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, reconciliation, and environmental justice. She completed her master's in International Peace Studies with an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and a minor in Environmental Studies. Overall, her work aims to disrupt Eurocentric hierarchies of knowledge production in the academy to support a just, shared future for all our relations.