Lukas Bosch, originally from New Brunswick, but having lived in almost every province across Canada, now calls Newfoundland and Labrador home while he is finishing his thesis for his M.A. in Environmental Policy at Grenfell Campus, under the supervision of Dr. Roza Tchoukaleyska. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC). His research interests relate to neoliberal Canadian mining development in Latin America, transnational imperialism, environmental (in)justice, and rural resilience in Latin America. His undergraduate thesis focused on evaluating the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies of Canadian transnational mining companies in Chile from an environmental justice framework.
Lukas’ advice to prospective graduate students is to be open to change during graduate studies, as his master’s research has taken multiple turns during his two years at Grenfell.
His research began looking into water governance and privatization, and the intersection between how Canadian mining development in the Huasco Valley of Chile has affected local water scarcity. From there, his topic shifted to an ethnography of Chilean anti-mining activists, and how neoliberal Canadian mining development has shaped activist identities. Prior to traveling to Chile to conduct his ethnographic fieldwork, his research plans had to drastically change due to the massive civil uprising which swept across Chile in late 2019/2020. Months later, Lukas’ new research took him to Spain where he sought to do similar ethnographic research into Spanish activist identities resulting from neoliberal Canadian mining development, but his research was once again suddenly cut short due to the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. Currently, he is back in Canada and now doing research on a historical discourse analysis on Canadian neoliberalism and mining development in Chile and how public discourse on the issue has changed over time.
Besides his research, Lukas has completed his internship with the Canadian Forest Service in the summer of 2019 and has collaborated with local municipalities on research projects relating to community planning, economic development, and public engagement. He has co-published an article with his supervisor relating to social enterprise and philanthropy on Fogo Island Newfoundland and has presented his research at the 2019 Aldrich Conference in St. John’s, as well as the 2019 Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Association of Geographers (CAG) held in Winnipeg Manitoba.