Associate Professor, Geography
yurcokm@jmu.edu
Contact Info
Education
- Ph.D., Geography, Pennsylvania State University
- M.S., Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan
- B.S., Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
- B.A. with Honors, English Literature, University of Pittsburgh
Scholarly Interests/Research Topics
- Conservation
- Development
- Environmental governance
- Feminist methodologies
- Food security
- Gender and women’s studies
- Human-animal interactions
- Inclusive pedagogies
- Political ecology
- Social and environmental justice
- Sub-Saharan Africa
Courses Taught
- GEOG 290/308 Environment, Nature, and Society
- GEOG 315 Field Studies in Geography
- GEOG 350 Topics in Geography (“Mixed Methods Research”)
- GEOG 377 Feminist Geography
- GEOG 465 Topics in GIS (“Environmental Justice and GIS”)
- GEOG 470 Senior Seminar in Environmental Conservation, Sustainability, and Development (“Environmental Governance”)
- GEOG 477 Gendered Geographies
Selected Experience
- Faculty Associate for Teaching, Center for Faculty Innovation, JMU (2021-present)
- Assistante de langue, Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale (France, 2015-2017)
- Graduate Fellow, International Livestock Research Institute (Nairobi, Kenya, 2014-2016)
Selected Publications
K. Yurco. 2022. Pastoralist milking spaces as multispecies sites of gendered control and resistance in Kenya. Gender, Place and Culture. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2022.2067522
K. Yurco. 2022. Re-negotiating care from the local to global. Ch. 6 in Gender, Food, and COVID-19: Global Stories of Harm and Hope. Eds. P. Castellanos, C.E. Sachs, and A.R. Tickamyer. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003198277.
N. Clay and K. Yurco. 2020. Political ecologies of milk: Contested futures of a lively food. Geography Compass 14:e12497. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12497.
B. King, J.E. Shinn, K. Yurco, K.R. Young, and K.A. Crews. 2019. Political ecologies of dynamic wetlands: Hydrosocial waterscapes in the Okavango Delta. The Professional Geographer 71(1): 29–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2018.1455524.
B. King, K. Yurco, K.R. Young, J.E. Shinn, K.A. Crews, and A. Sosnowski. 2018. Livelihood dynamics across a variable flooding regime in Northern Botswana. Human Ecology 46(6): 865–874. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-018-0039-2.
K. Yurco. 2018. Beyond the boma: A gendered approach to conceptualizing resource access in pastoral households. Geoforum 97: 343–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.08.001.
N. Clay, K. Yurco, A. Agrawal, and L. Persha. 2018. Ecosystem services in transitional forest landscapes: Shifting trajectories in southeast Michigan, USA. Society and Natural Resources 31(4): 457–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1413692.
K. Yurco. 2017. Herders and herdsmen: The remaking of pastoral livelihoods in Laikipia, Kenya. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice 7(15): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13570-017-0086-0.
K. Yurco, B. King, K.R. Young, and K.A. Crews. 2017. Human-wildlife interactions and environmental dynamics in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Society and Natural Resources 30(9): 1112–1126. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2017.1315655.
