Michele Barnes

Michele is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the College of Arts, Society, and Education, an Associate Professor in the School of Project Management at the University of Sydney, and is the head of the Social Dynamics & the Environment Lab. In 2023 she served as the President of the Australian Network for Social Network Analysis and she currently serves on the board of the International Network for Social Network Analysis. Her work draws on theories and methods from sociology and complex systems science to contribute a better understanding of the linkages between people and nature that underpin complex environmental problems. She has specialized expertise in social network science, which she applies to explore key issues such as: how human-nature interactions drive environmental outcomes, how environmental knowledge spreads through society, and how social networks influence environmental behaviour.

Michele's research is increasingly focused on adaptation and resilience, asking critical questions such as: What factors drive or underpin human responses to environmental change (and in what context)? When can a response or action be considered transformative vs. adaptive? How are human responses to change underpinned by social-ecological feedbacks, and how can they potentially alter these feedbacks? What role does power play in shaping responses to change, and what does this mean for resilience (and for whom)? To investigate these questions, she works closely with interdisciplinary teams of scholars, policy-makers, managers, and practitioners and has active research sites in Australia, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, and Hawai‘i.

Michele obtained her PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the University of Hawaii in 2015. Throughout her tenure in Hawaii, she held adjunct faculty appointments at the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Pacific University, where she developed and taught courses on the human dimensions of marine systems and quantitative social science methods. Michele is committed to research impact and has worked with communities, practitioners, and policy makers to apply research insights in Hawaii, the United States, Australia, and in the Western Indian Ocean. For example, from 2021-2022, Michele served as a member of the Expert Working Group that developed a National Strategy for Just Adaptation in Australia.