Nicole T. Venker is a human-environment geographer whose work explores how conflict-driven migration shapes rural livelihoods, environmental access, and food sovereignty. 

She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. Her dissertation investigates the impacts of Myanmar’s protracted civil war on refugees’ experiences of displacement, temporary relocation, and resettlement in the U.S. and Thailand. 

In Upstate New York, Venker uses life histories and object-centered interviews to examine how hunting and fishing support refugees’ food sovereignty after resettlement with findings informing local resource management. Her second project, in collaboration with People’s Radio Myanmar, engages displaced migrants in Thailand in participatory counter-mapping, using photography and storytelling to reimagine borderlands from migrant perspectives. Supported by the Migrations Program, the Society of Women Geographers, and the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, Nicole’s work integrates feminist political ecology and participatory research to center migrant knowledge and advance social and environmental justice.

Degree Pursued: PhD

Anticipated Degree Year: 2026

Committee chair/advisor: Kathryn Fiorella & Bruce Lauber

Discipline: Natural Resources, Political Ecology

Primary Language: Burmese

Research Countries: Myanmar (Burma)

U.S. Research Interests: Diaspora, migration, food pathways