Dr James Langston

James was born in northern England, raised in mid-Atlantic USA, and moved to FNQ Australia to pursue his Masters and PhD in 2011. Following a four year stint in Canada, he joined CSIRO in March, 2023.

He discovered his passion for transdisciplinary research in Tanzania as part of his undergraduate program through Bates and the School for International Training. He has a broad-based interdisciplinary background and works on the interconnected issues that shape development trajectories in forest landscapes, mainly tropical. He is interested in governance, learning, and how change happens. Previously he explored ways of achieving ‘embedded science’ in high-stakes forest landscapes where people, nature, and their institutions are going through transition. His PhD centred on a practical political ecology of spatial development initiatives in Indonesia; he continues that work here with the Landscape and Forest Function Team. He maintains transdisciplinary partnerships in Indonesia, the Mekong region, the Congo Basin, and most recently in British Columbia (where he most recently managed the Master of International Forestry program at UBC). His past and present commitments are born of a desire to stimulate more just learning mechanisms that influence discourses on desirable future landscapes, and the decision-making systems that shape their benefits.

James enjoys to read widely, likens development to jazz, and enjoys the fruits of being academically ill-disciplined. He doesn't like boundaries and the procrustean beds that emerge from them. He enjoys being in nature - hiking, camping, bird-watching, skiing, mountain biking, and convivial time with family and friends.