Staff profile

My research focusses primarily on the social dimensions of climate change vulnerability and adaptation. I am particularly interested in how ethnographic and participatory research can add nuance to discussions of climate justice, (in)equality, and lived experience, and (in combination with other disciplines) may contribute to insightful and responsible climate-related decisions, policy, and practice.

Prior to joining Durham (in April 2025), I worked as a Social Scientist for Aotearoa New Zealand’s National Institute for Water and Atmospheric research (NIWA). At NIWA I led and contributed to interdisciplinary research projects spanning climate, hazards, marine and freshwater portfolios, with a special focus on supporting just and socially-inclusive climate adaptation. These projects generated policy-relevant insights and were largely carried out in collaboration with and for New Zealand’s local government authorities, Māori iwi (tribal organisations), and the private sector.

I received my PhD (in Human Geography) in 2023 from the University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau (Aotearoa New Zealand). My PhD research explored Indigenous Māori women’s diverse lived experiences of health, wellbeing, climate change vulnerability and adaptation, and was conducted in partnership with three rural communities in northern Aotearoa. I utilised Māori women's embodied and relational experiences of health and wellbeing as a lens through which to reflect on intersections of Indigeneity, ethnicity, class, gender, age and other identity markers; explore differential vulnerability to climate impacts amongst Māori women and their households; and understand climate adaptation as a process that both entrenches and transforms inequalities in a settler colonial context.

I also have a Masters in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Arizona, USA (2015) and an MA(Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews (2009). I undertook a variety of research and teaching appointments at the Universities of Auckland and Arizona. This included two and a half years working as a Research Associate for Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) where I co-led community-based participatory research into regional food sovereignty and socio-economic precarity in partnership with the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

Current work

I currently work as a PDRA on the SAT-Guard project, alongside Professor Simone Abram. The SAT-Guard project aims to enhance UK power grid resilience in the context of intensifying climate hazards, the net zero energy transition, and ongoing social, political, and spatial inequality. Leveraging remote sensing, satellite-aided technologies, and ethnographic case studies, this inter-disciplinary project seeks to better forecast the impact of extreme weather on renewable Distributed Energy Resources, develop and test strategies to proactively and equitably manage the grid and restore connectivity in the aftermath of hazard-induced power outages.

• Climate change and hazard vulnerability
• Justice, transformation and climate adaptation
• Climate maladaptation
• Health and wellbeing implications of climate change
• Wellbeing, place and identity
• Climate adaptation, resistance and cultural resurgence
• Settler colonialism, Indigenous peoples and climate change
• Just transitions

Journal Article

• ‘That still haunts me a little bit’: Decision-makers and information providers' experiences of recurring flood events
  
  Johnson, D., Harrison, S., Cattoën, C., Luttrell, J., & Blackett, P. (2025). ‘That still haunts me a little bit’: Decision-makers and information providers’ experiences of recurring flood events. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 118, Article 105216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105216
• Resistance, resurgence, and wellbeing: climate change loss and damages from the perspective of Māori women
  
  Johnson, D., Fisher, K., & Parsons, M. (2024). Resistance, resurgence, and wellbeing: climate change loss and damages from the perspective of Māori women. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 7(3), 1318-1364. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486231217891
• A bibliometric and topic analysis of climate justice: Mapping trends, voices, and the way forward
  
  Parsons, M., Asena, Q., Johnson, D., & Nalau, J. (2024). A bibliometric and topic analysis of climate justice: Mapping trends, voices, and the way forward. Climate Risk Management, 44, Article 100593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2024.100593
• Measuring Social Vulnerability to Climate Change at the Coast: Embracing Complexity and Context for More Accurate and Equitable Analysis
  
  Johnson, D., Blackett, P., Allison, A. E., & Broadbent, A. M. (2023). Measuring Social Vulnerability to Climate Change at the Coast: Embracing Complexity and Context for More Accurate and Equitable Analysis. Water, 15(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/w15193408
• Adaptation at whose expense? Explicating the maladaptive potential of water storage and climate-resilient growth for Māori women in northern Aotearoa
  
  Johnson, D., Parsons, M., & Fisher, K. (2023). Adaptation at whose expense? Explicating the maladaptive potential of water storage and climate-resilient growth for Māori women in northern Aotearoa. Global Environmental Change, 82, Article 102733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102733
• Indigenous climate change adaptation: New directions for emerging scholarship
  
  Johnson, D. E., Parsons, M., & Fisher, K. (2022). Indigenous climate change adaptation: New directions for emerging scholarship. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 5(3), 1541-1578. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486211022450
• Engaging Indigenous perspectives on health, wellbeing and climate change. A new research agenda for holistic climate action in Aotearoa and beyond
  
  Johnson, D., Parsons, M., & Fisher, K. (2021). Engaging Indigenous perspectives on health, wellbeing and climate change. A new research agenda for holistic climate action in Aotearoa and beyond. Local Environment, 26(4), 477-503. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2021.1901266