You are here

Laura Butler

Profile

Contact 

Email: ljb497@uowmail.edu.au

Twitter: @laura_j_butler

Research

PhD Title: Biosecurity on the fringe: Living with weeds in peri-urban horticulture in the Northern Territory, Australia

Laura's PhD research aims to understand the relationship between peri-urban horticulture and weeds in Australia's Northern Territory, and the insights that may be drawn from this relationship regarding how people and weeds can more effectively co-exist in the Anthropocene. The study will contribute to Dr Jennifer Atchison's Future Fellowship 'Transforming Invasive Plant Management in Northern Australia'.

In 2023, Laura will travel to Darwin to learn with horticulture and biosecurity stakeholders in the city's outskirts. The research will consider the actors (human and non-human) involved in horticulture in peri-urban Darwin; the knowledges, practices, and relationships important for biosecurity in this setting; and how biosecurity discourses and practices are being perpetuated and/or challenged in horticultural networks. The study will engage with cultural geography, vegetal geography, and critical social science accounts of biosecurity through a more-than-human approach.

Laura's research interests include invasive species, more-than-human perspectives, and Australian social and environmental policy.

Publications

  • Laura Butler, Amy Lawton and Parisa Kalali 2023, 'Upholding workplace safety when supporting survivors of institutional child sexual abuse: Perspectives from community and legal practitioners covering Greater Western Sydney', The Australian Journal of Community and Disability Practitioners, 2023 NSW Election Special Edition, https://www.accdp.org.au/thejournal2023.
  • Amy Lawton & Laura Butler 2021, ‘Recognising the abuse and trauma histories of clients in early intervention homeless initiatives - insights from Greater Western Sydney and beyond’, Parity, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 39–40. DOI: 10.3316/informit.197932386112176