Amber Fletcher

Dr. Amber Fletcher’s research examines how gender and social inequality shape the lived experience of climate change through the lens of climate disasters (flooding, drought, and wildfire). Focusing on rural and Indigenous communities in the Canadian Prairie region, her work reveals the lived impact of inequality in the context of crisis.

Amber is currently Principal Investigator on a SSHRC-funded project entitled, “Community-Campus Responses to Crisis: Opportunities for Community Engagement and Networked Learning for Climate Change Resilience” (2023-24). She also serves as Co-Director on a SSHRC-funded, intercontinental project called “Bridging the Water Adaptation Gap: A Comparative Inter- and Transdisciplinary Perspective of Regional Risks and Vulnerabilities in Drylands in Canada and Latin America” (2022-27). Dr. Fletcher’s other projects include a five-year study on the social dimensions of climate hazards in agricultural and Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan and several SSHRC- and CIHR-funded projects on environmental impact assessment and public safety.

She has published research in international peer-reviewed journals, including Regional Environmental Change, Agriculture and Human Values, Journal of Rural Studies, Society & Natural Resources, Cuadernos de Desarrollo Rural, Geoforum, Climate Policy, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, Evidence & Policy, Natural Hazards, International Social Work, and The Canadian Geographer/le Géographe canadien.

Amber has also published chapters in a number of anthologies, most recently Feminism’s Fight: Challenging Politics and Policies in Canada Since 1970 (2023, edited by B. Cameron and M. Luxton), Handbook of Social Inclusion: Research and Practices in Health and Social Sciences (2021, edited by P. Liamputtong), and Water Security Across the Gender Divide (2018, edited by C. Fröhlich et al.). She has published two edited collections, Gender and the Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Rural and Resource Contexts of the Global North (with Maureen G. Reed, Routledge, 2023) and Women in Agriculture Worldwide: Key Issues and Practical Approaches (with Wendee Kubik, Routledge, 2017). She is currently authoring an open-access textbook on qualitative research methods.

Amber has delivered over 100 presentations in Canada and worldwide—including invited talks to audiences in Spain, Portugal, England, Italy, and the USA—and has contributed to expert testimonies for two Standing Committees of the Parliament of Canada. In 2012 she spoke at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women on the topic of rural women’s wellbeing. Dr. Fletcher has also served as a consultant to the United Nations World Water Assessment Programme. She is a contributing author to Chapter 7 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land (2019).

Dr. Fletcher is a past President of the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (2018-19). She holds two medals from the Governor General of Canada for her research and advocacy on gender equality in Canada. In 2020, she was the Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. In 2022, she received the Provost’s Award for Innovation in Teaching at the University of Regina.

She teaches courses in social research methodology, qualitative research methods, and introductory sociology topics. She enjoys integrating community-engaged learning opportunities into her classroom and is always interested in partnering with community and non-profit organizations with research questions or data needs.

 Links to publications:

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amber_Fletcher