Kelly Vodden
Professor (Research)
Program: Environmental Policy/Transdisciplinary Sustainability/Environment & Sustainability
Email: kvodden@mun.ca
Phone: 709-630-2703
Office: FC 2016
Credentials
PhD SFU (Geography)
Research interests
- Sustainable rural community and regional development
- Rural resilience and community adaptation
- Community involvement in natural resource management
- Collaborative, multi-level governance
- Rural innovation
- Community engaged scholarship
Teaching
- Transdisciplinary Sustainability 7001: Foundations of Sustainability and Sustainability Science
- Environmental Policy 6002: Research Design and Methods
- Environmental Policy 6520: Planning and Policy for Sustainable Communities and Regions
Representative scholarly contributions
Books (edited)
Hall, H., D. Lionais, and K. Vodden. (In Press) Extraction: The Community Impacts of Mobile Work in Canada’s Natural Resources Sector. University of Toronto Press.
Gruezmacher, M., B. Lowery, A. Hudson, K. Vodden, K. Van Assche (2025) Rethinking Assets in Resource Dependent Communities: Lessons from Newfoundland and Labrador. Routledge.
Slawinski, N., Lowery, B., Seto, A., Stoddart, M., & Vodden, K. (Eds) (2023) Revitalizing PLACE through Social Enterprise. St. John’s: Memorial University Press.
Selected Book Chapters (co-authored)
Islam, N., K. Vodden (2023) How does Community Renewable Energy (CRE) contribute to avoiding nature- enabled dispossession: A systematic review on energy justice in CRE projects. In Handbook of Nature-Based Solutions to Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change. Springer.
Vodden, K. M. Perez, and B. Reid (2023). Understanding Rural Development in Mair, H. (ed.) Handbook on Tourism and Rural Community Development. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Vodden, K. and A. Cunsolo (2021) Rural and Remote Communities; Chapter 3 in Canada in a Changing Climate: National Issues Report, (ed.) F.J. Warren and N. Lulham; Government of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.
Articles in Scholarly, Refereed Journals
Eddy, B., Vodden, K., & Kerketta, S. (2025) A comparative analysis of multiple indices of wellbeing, vitality and multiple deprivation for communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Journal of Rural and Community Development, 20(2), 217–230.
Tuyet-Anh T. Le, K. Vodden, J. Wu, R. Bullock, G. Sabau (2024) Payments for ecosystem services programs towards sustainability: A Global Review. Heliyon. Vol 10(1) Volume 10, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e22361.
Yirenki, E. and K. Vodden (2024) The Role of Philanthropy in financing climate change mitigation and Adaptation: A systematic literature review. Local Development and Society, 5(1), 151–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/26883597.2024.2320458
Barrett, J. and K. Vodden. (2022) Partnerships in Place: Facilitating rural local government entrepreneurialism in Newfoundland and Labrador. Canadian Geographer. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12814
Gruezmacher, M., K. Van Assche, K. Vodden, R. Gibson, L. Deacon. (2021) Reinvention path and reinvention paradox: strategic change in Western Newfoundland communities. Futures. 128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021.102713
Reid, B., L. Butters and K. Vodden. (2021) Employment-related geographic mobility (E-RGM), place attachment, and philanthropy: Interconnections and implications for rural community well-being in Newfoundland and Labrador. International Journal of Community Well -Being: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-021-00139-1
Current research projects and grants
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Principal Investigator, Successful Applications
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Co-Investigator, Successful Applications
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Years |
Project/Source/Amount of Award/Status |
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2024- |
Rethinking Transformation: Centering Msit No’kmaq for Just and Equitable Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation (The Rethinking Project) Amount of award: $511,753 [Status: IN PROGRESS] |
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2021-2022 |
Hydroelectric development impact on Marine Ecosystems: Grand Riverkeeper Labrador, Inc. engaging in knowledge sharing with Subsistence and Commercial Fishers (PI Shelley Price). MITACS. Amount of award: $15,000 [Status: COMPLETE] |
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2020-2023 |
Building resilient coastal communities through social and community enterprise; Ocean Frontier Initiative, ACOA, TCII (PI Natalie Slawinski); Amount of award: $600,000: Ocean Frontier Initiative (OFI) 300,000, TCII $75,000, ACOA $225,000.[Status: IN PROGRESS]. Total in-kind contribution: $203,000 [Status: COMPLETE]] |
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2020-2025 |
Reinvention North: strategies in governance workshop; SSHRC (Kristof Van Assche PI). Amount of award: $25,000 [Status: COMPLETE] |
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2020-2025 |
Entrepreneurialism and Rural/small-town Local Government; SSHRC Insight Grant (PI G. Halseth); Amount of award: $149,388 [Status: COMPLETE]. |
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2019-2023 |
Coastal Routes. SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (PI P. Loring); Amount of award: $199,770 [Status: COMPLETE]. |
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2018-2025 |
Evaluating the role and actions of Canadian grantmaking foundations in addressing the issues of social inequalities and environmental challenges, SSHRC Partnership Grant (PIs JM Fontan and P. Elson); Amount of award: $2.5M [Status: COMPLETE]. |
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2018-2026 |
Remote Controlled: Technology in the Mining Sector & the Future of Development in Peripheral Regions, SSHRC Insight Grant (PI H. Hall); Amount of award: $253,305 [Status: IN PROGRESS]. |
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2017-22 |
Examining the Role of Place-based Collective Endowments in the Canadian Periphery, SSHRC Insight Grant (PI R. Gibson); Amount of award: $205,726 [Status: COMPLETE]]. |
Awards and recognitions
2017: Grenfell Campus Teaching Award; President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Supervision, nominee
2010: NLREDA (Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Economic Development Association) - Leslie Harris Award for Excellence by Memorial University Faculty, Staff & Students in Regional Development
2009: Memorial University of Newfoundland Students' Union Award for Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Contribution to Student Life
Honours, graduate and post-graduate supervision
Contributions to Training (2020-2026)
MA supervisor: Conor Curtis (2015-20), Rumbidzai Kanyangarara (2016-23), Avery Velez (2022-24)
MA co-supervisor: Ted Lomond (2018-20), Jackie Bauman (2019-25), Elmaddin Bayramov (2019-21), Laura Stern (2021-23), Sophie Buchholz (2022-24), Lawrence Nditsi (2022-24), Jacey Zohr (2022-23), Fadeela Yussif (2023-), Marie Lopez (2023-), Bethel Chukwukere (2023-), Jordan Lawrence (2024-)
PhD supervisor: A. Hudson (2014-20), B. Lowery (2016-20), Edmund Yirenkyi (2022-)
PhD co-supervisor: S. Khattab (2014-21), Thi Tuyet Anh Le (2018- ), Leanna Butters (2020-), Fred Campbell (2020-), Chantal Pennell (2022-), Mostaem Billah (2022-), Amanda Asiamah (2023-), Avery Velez (2023-), Lawrence Nditsi (2024-)
Post-doctoral fellow supervision: M. Perez (2019-2020), Sarah Minnes (2020-21), Sondra Eger (2021-22), Michelle Porter (2021), Brennan Lowery (2021-23), Emily Doyle (2021-), Julie Mallet (2025-), Evan Andrews (2025-), Christie Stilwell (2025-)