Ryan Bergstrom

Background & Expertise

Ryan Bergstrom is an interdisciplinary scholar and associate professor who works at the intersection of climate adaptation, landscape identity, well-being, and environmental storytelling. His work is grounded in cultural and physical geography, sustainability science and the environmental humanities, and often involves facilitating conversations between social and natural scientists, decision makers and stakeholders to collaboratively address complex and vexing environmental challenges. At the center of their work is a commitment to helping communities reimagine resilience as not just infrastructure, but as relationships. That is to say that Bergstrom approaches resilience not as a material or technical endeavor, but rather as a relational one that emerges through shared experiences and attachments to place. Bergstrom's work explores how landscapes shape, and are shaped by, cultural meaning, emotional attachment and collective responses to change, particularly in regions undergoing significant climatic and socio-ecological transformation.