Christopher Reimer (BA William Jewell College; MA Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex) is a settler scholar born into a modest Mennonite family and raised on the prairielands of Kansas. He is presently being advised by Dr. Karen Bakker as he pursues his PhD within the Geography department. His focus is on political ecology and critical geography scholarship. More specifically, he is interested in studying and actively supporting movements that aim to decolonize the physical, social, and digital spaces of ‘smart’ technology use in environmental stewardship.
With a background in welfare economics and aspirations of contributing to socioecological justice, Christopher comes to UBC having spent the past five years working for international nonprofits on a range of development issues spanning water and sanitation access, renewable energy, and community organizing (C.O.) approaches more broadly. It was through this work that he became aware of and passionate about power/knowledge imbalances within sustainable development praxis. This led him to pursue an MA in Power Participation and Social Change, as well as his eventual participatory action research (PAR) dissertation alongside former Cambodian colleagues to explore collective and personal pathways for decolonial and reflexive North-South aid collaborations.
As he moves forward in his new role as a scholar-practitioner, Christopher wishes to recognize that his knowledge and outputs are not his alone. Instead, they are inevitably a product of ongoing friendships and co-learnings that have emerged from working with colleagues, classmates, and more-than-human others in Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He is thankful for these experiences and those yet to come.