Ms. Julia Blocher is originally from Houston, Texas and spent much of her childhood in Geneva, Switzerland and Boulder, Colorado (USA). An environmentalist at an early age, Ms. Blocher has been a dedicated climate change activist for almost 15 years. Through her graduate studies, she developed a keen in the intersection between human rights and climate change. Currently, she is completing a Ph.D. on the linkages between environmental changes and human mobility (migration, displacement, and relocation) in the context of climate change.
Through her professional experiences in academia and at the United Nations, Ms. Blocher developed a passion for ensuring that effective public policies for inclusive, sustainable development are built on a solid evidence base. Through her experiences and field research, she gained experience in capacity building, youth empowerment, and participatory knowledge production, with a particular consideration for empowering young women and girls. To achieve these goals, she supports greater global recognition of skills and qualifications across borders as well as the advancement of innovative and widely-available training and research tools, notably through online learning platforms.
Ms. Blocher believes access to knowledge and youth participation in global policy-making processes are crucial to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Education
- Ph.D Candidate in Political Science, Hugo Observatory, University of Liège (2011).
- Master 2, Afaires internationales: environnement, dévelopment durable et risques (U.S. Equivalent: International Development), Sciences Po Paris.
- B.A. (General Honors, Departmental Honors, Dean’s list 2007-2009) International Studies and French, Johns Hopkins University.
Positions
- Project Manager, United Nations University (UNU).
- Project Assistant, Politiques de la terre (Politics of the earth).
- Communications Officer, Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
- Special Projects Consultant, United Nations Refugees’ Agency (UNHCR).
Publications
- Changement climatique, catastrophes naturelles et mobilité humaine en Afrique de l’Ouest.
- How can migration serve adaptation to climate change? Challenges to fleshing out a policy ideal.
- Containment in Sierra Leone: the inability of a state to confront Ebola?
- Climate change and environment related migration in the European Union policy: An organizational shift towards adaptation and development.
- How can migration support adaptation? Different options to test the migration–adaptation nexus.
- The reason land matters: Relocation as adaptation to climate change in Fiji Islands
- How climate extremes are affecting the movement of populations in the Asia Pacific region
- Discourses, perceptions and misconceptions of environmental migration scenarios in Europe.
- Catastrophes, Changement Climatique et Déplacements forcés Dynamiques régionales de mobilité en Afrique de l’Ouest.
- Water always Flows Downhill: A Case for Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and Decentralization of Forest Governance in REDD+ Implementation.
- Fleeing from arid lands: Pastoralism in the context of climate change.
- Long Term Solutions to Cross-border Disaster Displacement: Lessons from West Africa.
- Limits to Adapting to Climate Change Through Relocations in Papua-New Guinea and Fiji.
- Making Mobility Work for Adaptation to Environmental Changes: Results from the MELCEP Global Research.
- Lessons from the UNU Panel Series on Academic Thinking on Migration.
- Migration in Extreme Climate Change Scenarios.
- The reason place matters: Climate change and community relocation in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
- 3 Climate change and environment related migration in the European Union policy.
Entry in The IYF
2018
IYF History
IYF President (2018- ), Member of IYF Executive Board (2018- ), IYF Vice President (2018).