Julie Brugger

Research Scientist, School of Natural Resources and the Environment

Julie Brugger has a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology and works at the intersection between environmental and political anthropology. She is a Research Scientist in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment and is affliliated with the Institute of the Environment and the Center for Climate Adaption Science and Solutions.  Her current research concentrates on natural resource management and climate change adaptation in the American West, with a focus on rural communities, water governance, ranching and public lands.  She specializes in working with interdisciplinary teams to design and implement qualitative research that is systematic and uses multiple methods in order to enhance the reliability and legitimacy of results.  Prior to joining the Institute of the Environment, she was a postdoc at the University of California Davis where she participated in a comparative study of perceptions of and responses to glacier retreat in three mountain communities in Peru, Italy, and the US.  Her dissertation research examined conflict over the management of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.