Becca Farnum

Syracuse University London
United Kingdom

Jun 19, 2018

Becca Farnum is an environmental peacebuilding researcher and scholar. As an undergraduate, she received degrees in anthropology, international development, international relations, and interdisciplinary humanities from Michigan State University. She was awarded a Marshall Scholarship, and earned a M.Sc. in Water Security and International Development from the University of East Anglia, and a L.L.M. in International Law from the University of Edinburgh. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Geography at King’s College London, and has held positions as a Postgraduate Fellow at the Royal Geographical Society and the Zoological Society of London. She currently serves as the Community Relations Manager at Syracuse University London, and teaches courses on environmental justice and global citizenship.

Becca’s work focuses on the relationship between food, water, and peacebuilding in the Middle East and North Africa. Initially, through her interdisciplinary exploration and studies of the region, she became aware of the ways in which environmental governance and the resource curse are spoken about as conflict drivers in sub-Saharan Africa, but they are largely ignored in discourse around conflict in the Middle East. However, her field experiences in Israel, Egypt, and elsewhere suggested that environmental factors are also of concern and can serve as avenues for both conflict and cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa. These observations and her studies in water security and international law drew her to research on environmental conflict, cooperation, and diplomacy with three activist groups that are working to use nature for peace in creative ways. These groups are the Media Association for Peace in Lebanon, which works on the role of journalism in conflict transformation and has launched the concept of “environmental peace journalism”; the Kuwait Dive Team in the Arabian Gulf, which has used the environmental destruction caused by the Iraqi Invasion to promote community marine conservation; and Dar Si Hmad in Morocco, which uses innovative fog-harvesting mechanisms to support Amazigh communities. Becca’s article, “Drops of Diplomacy: Questioning the Scale of Hydro-diplomacy through Fog-harvesting” (in the Journal of Hydrology) examines fog-harvesting as a form of environmental peacebuilding and the connections between cooperation and cultural and environmental infrastructure.

Becca’s research draws deeply on the principle of interdisciplinarity. Her work integrates in international environmental and human rights law, environmental diplomacy, and relationships between people, food, water, and conflict, giving her a unique perspective on the connections between environment and peace.  

Becca counts the Environmental Peacebuilding Association and Community of Practice as important cross-disciplinary spaces, drawing together scholars and practitioners.  She says, “The book series, the Association, and the Community of Practice all are beginning to create a dominant discourse around environmental peacebuilding, and this model of scholarly knowledge creation is able to put itself into conversation across disciplines. The Association provides a crucial open space for asking important questions, and examining what things we are and aren’t saying.” The Association works to further these conversations and establish a community for practitioners, students, and scholars alike to share experiences and learn from one another. It also has an important role in mentoring young professionals.