Dr Franca Buelow (photo by Zohar Marshall).
Dr Franca Buelow started her post-doc with a broad scope – she then completed it early while still delivering that breadth. As she heads home to Germany in December with her family, we want to applaud her incredibly diverse outputs, a body of work that will stand as an exemplar of what interdisciplinary research can achieve.
If interdisciplinarity could be defined, Franca would be it. She has trained and studied in political science, English literature, and linguistics.
“I have also always been very passionate about the environment and climate change issues,” says Franca.
As an undergraduate, Franca was convinced that if she could figure out how politics work, how people make decisions, and how certain process are regulated and ruled, then she could help people understand that something needed to be done about climate change. This belief drove her early research, where she contributed to theoretical investigations into governance and decision-making.
For her master’s and PhD, Franca began to focus on decision-making at an individual level, particularly in the agricultural space. She first came to New Zealand during this time for a project on freshwater governance and collaboration.
Postdoctoral research
Several years after completing her PhD, Franca returned to New Zealand with her husband and children for a postdoctoral fellowship with Bioprotection Aotearoa where she joined pou Nuku-a-Rangi. Instead of one specific project, Franca wanted to do multiple projects with a distinctly interdisciplinary character.
“I wanted to understand communication patterns,” says Franca. “How do we talk to each other? How do we make connections? How do we find a shared perspective on things?”
Franca’s postdoc covered four connect themes: resilience; governance analysis (structural/institutional change); diversity, equity and inclusion; and climate change adaptation. The projects have given her avenues to combine her political science perspective with her linguistics and literature perspectives and also incorporate psychology and behavioural perspectives on decisions and decision-making.
“In this postdoc, I found a space where I could meaningfully integrate the different passions that I have,” says Franca. “I liked finding a way of being a political scientist that likes theories and enjoys abstract ideas but can put those ideas together in a way that is helpful in an applied context.”
Franca presenting some of her research at a conference (photo supplied).
One way Franca wed the theoretical with the applied was in a case study that used natural language processing and machine learning. She and a research assistant built five different corpora of textual material to compare the framing of change, transition, and transformation in New Zealand’s primary sector across media, government, advisory bodies, researchers, and Māori.
Franca and her research assistant found that these groups agreed on the need to change and innovate, but their values and perceptions about change were different across groups that have an impact on change in Aotearoa New Zealand’s primary sector.
Analyses of the language we use to talk about change helps us understand of how societies can be enabled to adapt. To achieve bioprotection goals, adaptation is necessary for finding and implementing new solutions to existing and emerging threats to agriculture and native ecosystems.
“There are so many dimensions to consider when we talk about change and when we want to consider pathways to resilience or governance pathways to inclusive change that strengthens our ability to act and react.”
Interdisciplinary impact
Franca wrapped up her postdoctoral fellowship early to take a lecturing position at Lincoln University before she moves back to Germany at the end of the year. However, her early departure doesn’t mean she hasn’t been able to accomplish what she set out to do. Franca published eight papers during her two years as a postdoctoral fellow with Bioprotection Aotearoa and four more have been submitted. These publications cover topics ranging from braided rivers to pay gaps at universities to value hierarchies as barriers to native biodiversity.
These diverse topics all relate to bioprotection in that they contribute to building more sustainable, resilient systems for future generations. These systems will be essential for successfully protecting productive and natural landscapes going forward.
Franca says she appreciates how much support she’s received from the Bioprotection Aotearoa community to think big and follow her passions.
“Early career researcher are trying to find the next step to the next stage in your career,” says Franca. “There is no set interdisciplinary career path. The support I’ve found in the Bioprotection Aotearoa community has helped me find my perspective.”
As Franca returns to Germany, she leaves behind a collection of excellent research, and she takes with her a strong network of professional and personal relationships.
“Because I love talking to everyone about research, resilience and climate change, I got to connect with a lot of people and lots of different projects,” says Franca. “I look forward to continuing the relationships that I’ve been able to build.”
More information:
You can learn more about Franca’s research and find a list of her many outputs > > Resilience, Governance, and Diversity
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