Dr. Mery Perez
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Office of Public Engagement
Mery Perez is a postdoctoral research fellow in public engagement at Grenfell Campus working with Dr. Garrett Richards and Kelly Vodden. She comes to EPI from the University of Guelph where she completed her PhD in Rural Studies with a focus on community capacity building and development through creativity. In her master’s and doctoral programs, her research focused on the role of the arts, particularly music, in capacity development, community building, and social and environmental change in Canada and in Latin America. Her research interests include the relationship between environmental governance and community development, and the role of Indigenous and rural communities in sustainability.
Education
- PhD, Rural Studies, University of Guelph (2019), Dissertation: Re-articulating Discourse for Indigenous and Environmental Justice: A Study of Nicaragua’s Unidos por BOSAWAS Music Festivals.
- MA, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Guelph (2014), Thesis: Empowered by Song: the Misa Campesina and Peasant Involvement in the Nicaraguan Revolution.
- MA, Spanish Language and Literature, University of Toronto (2009).
- BA (Honours), Psychology, York University (2008)
Research Interests
- renewable energy
- science-policy interfaces and evidence-based policy
- knowledge mobilization
- interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary
- deliberative democracy
- science outreach