Karen Bakker is Professor and holds the Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, where she is the founding Director of the Program on Water Governance (www.watergovernance.ca). She conducts research in both the ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ world, at the intersection of political economy and political ecology.

Her current research focuses on (i) transboundary water governance; (ii) water security; (iii) market instruments in water management; and (iv) delegated water management. Committed to interdisciplinarity, she collaborates with natural, social and medical scientists across a range of disciplines.

Karen Bakker has authored over 100 academic publications, including books with Oxford University Press, Cornell University Press, and University of British Columbia Press. Her journal articles have been translated into French, German and Spanish, and have appeared in top ten Web of Science-ranked peer-reviewed journals in six fields: Development Studies, Economics, Environmental Studies, Geography, Political Science, and Urban Studies.

Committed to outreach and community service, she regularly advises international and non-governmental organizations on water policy. A Rhodes Scholar, she was named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 in 2011.