Kathryn Bjorklund successfully defends master’s thesis
In May 2023, I successfully defended my master’s thesis, ‘Unearthing the social-ecological cascades of the fall armyworm invasion: A computer-assisted text analysis of digital news articles.’ This final seminar marked the culmination of my two-year journey in the Social-Ecological Resilience for Sustainable Development Masters Program at the Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Before joining the program, I was interested broadly in exploring the intersection of environmental and social issues. Some months into my coursework, I heard Peter, a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, speak about his work involving emerging pests and pathogens and their social-ecological consequences. I was excited to learn that someone was working on this salient topic. I reached out to him, and from there, this thesis process unfolded.
Given the time frame for this particular project, I wanted to investigate a specific pest or pathogen. I chose to look into the fall armyworm as its global invasion exemplifies a situation that is likely to become more common in part due to climate change. The fall armyworm is a plant pest that has spread rapidly to 78 countries and territories outside of its native range and affects many crops like maize, rice and sorghum.
I used topic modeling and thematic analysis of news articles about the fall armyworm invasion to look into the social-ecological cascades connected to its events. Social-ecological cascades being chains of events that occur when a disturbance in one part of a system ripples out to create impacts across multiple parts of a system. This approach allowed me to identify and understand regional trends and variations in popular news media discourse about the invasion over time. The discernment of these regional differences has implications for identifying context-specific vulnerabilities and formulating tailored pest management strategies.
I’m super humbled to have had this experience. I learned so much every step of the way. I hope through this work that people:
Gain a greater understanding of the global fall armyworm invasion while opening their eyes to news of other cases like it.
Recognize the importance of developing interdisciplinary approaches to research for addressing complex social-ecological challenges.
Take a moment to pull apart the layers of difficulty these issues present for people and the environment.