Kathryn McConnell is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia. Her research examines the social dynamics of climate change, with a focus on the intersection of climate hazards, the built environment, and population mobility. This work is motivated by using social science tools to inform equitable climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. Prior to joining UBC, Dr. McConnell was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University’s Population Studies and Training Center.

My research is primarily focused on: (1) the relationship between the environment and migration, (2) changes to housing and infrastructure as a result of and in response to climate-related hazards, and (3) the politics of building and development under climate change. I draw on mixed methodological tools, often incorporate forms of spatial analysis into my work, and collaborate with scholars across disciplines, including the biophysical sciences. I prioritize projects that are relevant to the regions where I have lived, which has translated into a research focus on wildfires and rural communities.

Migration: I study how increasingly frequent extreme weather events influence migration dynamics. My research in this area includes a national study of the effects of wildfire destruction on migration patterns in the United States and qualitative research on post-wildfire migration decision-making. I also have ongoing research that draws on restricted U.S. Census records to describe geographic migration patterns across different demographic groups.

Built environment: This line of research examines physical changes in the built environment, and includes a study documenting socially uneven wildfire impacts across different housing types and a collaborative project evaluating managed retreat as an adaptation to wildfire. I am especially interested in ways that the physical environment and social processes shape each other, with implications for how climate hazards are distributed.

Climate politics: In this area, I explore the politics that emerge in response to climate-related changes to the built environment. For instance, my research has shown the polarizing effects of framing bundled infrastructure and social policy as ‘the Green New Deal’ in rural communities. In new work, I am examining normative discourses of hazardous places, in other words, ideas about where people should or should not live as climate change impacts amplify.

Selected publications:

McConnell, K., Fussell, E., DeWaard, J., Whitaker, S., Curtis, K.J., St. Denis, L., Balch, J., and Price, K. “Rare and highly destructive wildfires drive human migration in the U.S.” Nature Communications 15 (2024).

McConnell, Kathryn, and Christian V. Braneon. “Post-wildfire neighborhood change: evidence from the 2018 Camp Fire.” Landscape and urban planning 247 (2024): 104997.

McConnell, Kathryn, and Liz Koslov. “Critically assessing the idea of wildfire managed retreat.” Environmental Research Letters 19, no. 4 (2024): 041005.

McConnell, Kathryn, J. Tom Mueller, Alexis A. Merdjanoff, Paul Berne Burow, and Justin Farrell. “Informal Modes of Social Support among Residents of the Rural American West during the COVID‐19 Pandemic.” Rural Sociology 88, no. 4 (2023): 972-1000.

McConnell, Kathryn. “‘The Green New Deal’ as partisan cue: Evidence from a survey experiment in the rural US.” Environmental Politics 32, no. 3 (2023): 452-484.

St. Denis, Lise A., Karen C. Short, Kathryn McConnell, Maxwell C. Cook, Nathan P. Mietkiewicz, Mollie Buckland, and Jennifer K. Balch. “All-hazards dataset mined from the US National Incident Management System 1999–2020.” Scientific data 10, no. 1 (2023): 112.

Farrell, Justin, Paul Berne Burow, Kathryn McConnell, Jude Bayham, Kyle Whyte, and Gal Koss. “Effects of land dispossession and forced migration on Indigenous peoples in North America.” Science 374, no. 6567 (2021): eabe4943.

Mueller, J. Tom, Kathryn McConnell, Paul Berne Burow, Katie Pofahl, Alexis A. Merdjanoff, and Justin Farrell. “Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural America.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 1 (2021): 2019378118.

I have received external awards and fellowships from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Sociology; Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences; and Humans, Disasters, and the Built Environment programs) and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Climate Change Research Initiative.

External Research Affiliate, University of Washington Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology

Affiliate, UBC Centre for Migration Studies

Network Member, UBC Disaster Resilience Research Network