Researchers

Dr Nicki Mazur

PhD, MEnvST, Adel, BSc Syracuse Uni, New York State

Adjunct research fellow

When you go through the various research projects ILWS adjunct research fellow Dr Nicki Mazur has been involved in during her career, the word 'generalist' immediately comes to mind. "I've certainly had a lot of variety in my career," says Nicki, a social scientist based in Canberra . "It's a shame that the word 'generalist' sometimes has a negative connotation. It can imply that you know a little bit about a lot of things, when in fact you often know a lot about a lot of things. I think having an interdisciplinary research career that spans numerous subject areas means you have a good sense of context. That is really valuable when you are dealing with complex natural resource management issues. You need to see the big picture. There are always people out there who have specialised knowledge you can draw on."

Nicki, who was born in New York , came to Australia as a tourist in 1988. After completing her Bachelor of Science at Syracuse University in New York in 1981, she trained showjumpers and worked in sport administration. She returned to Australia in 1990 to do post-graduate studies at Adelaide University studying public perceptions of zoos for her Masters in Environmental Studies. She extended her Masters into a PhD to look more broadly at the social and institutional dimensions of zoos' role in conservation.

In 1997/8, Nicki worked as a consultant for short time. Projects included a State of the Environment Report for the Adelaide City Council, and running an international symposium on wildlife conservation. In 1998 she went to ANU as a post-doctoral research fellow where she extended and updated her work on zoos, and published a book "After the Ark: Environmental Policy Making at the Zoo".

After another year as a consultant, in 2002 Nicki took up a position as a social scientist with the Bureau of Rural Sciences' Social Sciences Program in Canberra where her work involved "helping policy makers understand some of the social dimensions and impacts of different policies and programs particularly for primary producers and rural communities."A large project she worked on (with Prof Allan Curtis) was looking at communities' perceptions of aquaculture using two case studies in coastal Victoria and South Australia . Other projects included designing community consultation processes for animal welfare issues; and looking at some of the social dimensions of drought.

Since 2005 Nicki has worked as a private consultant and been an adjunct with the Institute. Projects she has undertaken for the Federal Government include further work on public consultation processes for animal welfare regulations; looking at trends affecting the Australian food industry and its use of food safety and quality assurance systems; and looking at the social factors affecting fishing practices.

Her ILWS projects include a project with Prof Curtis and Dr Catherine Allan looking at the use of risk perception and social impact assessment frameworks to understand flood management (which ended up being a chapter in the book Floods in an Arid Continent, published by Elsevier Press in 2006), and a literature search for Dr Jennifer Sappey in Orange looking at what research had been done on the social and economic impacts of an aging population. Currently she is working on a new project, again with Prof Curtis and Dr Rik Thwaites, looking at landholder adaptation to climate variability for the North Central CMA.

"I'm happy working as a consultant and as an adjunct fellow - I'm doing interesting work that will hopefully help us live more socially-conscious and therefore more sustainable lives," says Nicki who says her academic work gives her the chance to be really reflective. "It is important to be able to reflect when you are problem solving in our busy world."

Research Interests

Publication List and Projects

Contact

Email: nickimazur@grapevine.net.au.