Projects & Outreach

Research Projects:

“Strengthening Teamwork to Confront Social-Ecological Challenges: Generating New Knowledge for Effective Action in the Americas“, Principal Investigator (PI), Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) Training Institute Seed Grant, 2014-2015, $20,000.

“Strengthening Resilience of Arid Region Riparian Corridors: Ecohydrology and Decisionmaking in the Sonora and San Pedro Watersheds”, Graduate Research Associate, National Science Foundation (NSF) Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH) project, 2010-2015.

“Examining Barriers to Realizing Water Sensitive Urban Design: Household Landscaping Perceptions and Choices in spite of Long-Term Drought and Conservation Education.” (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia), Principal Investigator (PI), National Science Foundation (NSF) East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) Summer Program, 2010, $8,000.

“Integrated water and land planning as a climate adaptation strategy: Comparisons of Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona ”, Graduate Research Assistant, NOAA SARP Water Research, 2008-2010.

Outreach:

In addition to scholarly presentations and publications, I aim to engage with and communicate my research to the broader public.  As a Carson Scholar, I was affiliated with the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2, a living laboratory, where I presented research talks and workshops to the public and installed a permanent exhibit.  I am a founding member and ongoing contributor to the Public Political Ecology Lab (PPEL) (ppel.arizona.edu), which acts as a venue for disseminating information as a vehicle for progressive social and environmental change.  I am also interested in utilizing inquiry-based learning and experiential pedagogy as strategies to engage and train students in political ecology theory and methods.

House-Peters, L. 2012. Carson Scholar/Biosphere 2 Science and Society Fellow, “Land Use Change, Climate Variability, and Riparian Resilience.”

House-Peters, L, S. Kelly-Richards, L. Radonic, J. Minor, and J. Quinn. 2013. Public political ecology field course: Report on a two-day critical theory and mixed methods course. Public Political Ecology Lab, http://ppel.arizona.edu/resources/ppel-report-political-ecology-critical-theory-and-mixed-methods-field-course.

House-Peters, L. 2013. ‘The periphery of the periphery’: A photo essay of surface water management in the Sonoran borderlands. Public Political Ecology Lab, http://ppel.arizona.edu/content/periphery-periphery.

House-Peters, L. 2014. Riparian Enclosures: Spaces of Exclusion in the Sonora Border(ed)lands. Public Political Ecology Lab, http://ppel.webhost.uits.arizona.edu/ppelwp/?p=708.

House-Peters, L. and S. Kelly-Richards (Eds). 2014. Political Ecology of Bordered Spaces. Special Web Issue of Public Political Ecology Lab, http://ppel.webhost.uits.arizona.edu/ppelwp/?cat=60.

Cartography for Activism:

I designed biodiversity maps to contribute to the effort to save the unique, high biodiversity Cabo Pulmo region of Baja California from development. The maps are published in: Vanderplank, S.E., B.T. Wilder, E. Ezcurra. 2014. Descubriendo la Biodiversidad Terrestre en la Región de Cabo Pulmo / Uncovering the Dryland Biodiversity of the Cabo Pulmo Region. Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers, and UC MEXUS, U.S.A. 122 pg.

Following the September 2014 Grupo Mexico Cananea Mine spill of contaminated effluent into the Rio Sonora River, the largest watershed in the Mexican state of Sonora, I gathered, analyzed, and mapped spatial data to assist ongoing social and environmental justice projects in the affected local communities.