Michael Denney is a global governance scholar with an MsC in international relations from UMass Boston and a BA in political science and history from McGill University. He speaks English and French, and his research interests include food security, food systems, land governance, the science-policy interface, nutrition, and international development. A second-year PhD student in Global Governance and Human Security, Michael is planning to do his dissertation on the socioeconomic impacts of large-scale industrial farming in sub-Saharan Africa.
A long-time practitioner of wilderness living, Denney prefers fieldwork to desk work. In 2013, he worked with the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Center and Network at their Gambella Field Office in order to develop a shea butter value-added agriculture supply chain around Gambella National Park. He is versed in survey, interview, and quantitative analysis methodologies. Through his work, he seeks to combine economic and governance analyses with empirical scientific research on ecosystems. He is working towards understanding how scientific findings can be better integrated with international and national-level policies in order to promote global food security in spite of human and climate change-induced land degradation.