Gemma Smith researches the governance and politics of international freshwater resources. To this end, her work combines theory and methods from international relations, comparative politics, public policy, environmental governance and civil and environmental engineering. Gemma’s dissertation research aims to contribute to improving the management of transboundary water quality and pollution issues through better understanding of governance processes and outcomes in North American borderlands. Her methods draw on a variety of social, political, economic and environmental qualitative and quantitative data with the goal of making more robust causal connections between policy decisions and environmental outcomes.

Prior to joining the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) Ph.D. program, Gemma completed her Master’s in international policy on the environment and energy track at Stanford University. She previously worked in international finance in Europe and Asia, having completed her Bachelor’s in English literature and Spanish at the University of Exeter, UK, in 2013. She is a William C. and Jeanne M. Landreth Fellow in E-IPER.