Lisa Kelley

Dr. Lisa Kelley
Assistant Professor
Department of Geography & Environmental Sciences
lisa.kelley@ucdenver.edu

Mailing Address:
Dept. of Geography & Environmental Sciences
Campus Box 172
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364

Physical Location:
Auraria Campus
North Classroom Building
Room 3501-B

Fields of Interest:

Human-Environment Geography, Agrarian and Forest Change, Land Use, Political Ecology, Remote Sensing

Biography

Dr. Lisa C. Kelley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. Her work is situated in the field of critical physical geography and combines theories and methods from political ecology, critical agrarian studies, and remote sensing to understand ongoing land and livelihood transformations. She holds a PhD from UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management and a BA, magna cum laude, in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University. Before joining CU Denver in Fall 2020, she served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Fulbright Program, and the Office of Naval Research.

Dr. Kelley has a longstanding interest in questions of agrarian and forest change in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, where her research has explored dynamics of commodity expansion, forest conflict, and state territorialization. Newer work explores ongoing land and labor transformations at the intersection of agrarian and climate changes in Hawai‘i and Indonesia. Her scholarship is published in diverse interdisciplinary fora, including Annals of the Association of American Geographers, World Development, and Ecology and Society. Beyond her research and teaching, she has worked as a volunteer scientist and educator with Pandemic Research for the People and the Prison University Project.

Education

PhD, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management | University of California Berkeley | 2017
BA, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology cum laude | Princeton University | 2008

Kelley, L. C. (2026). Restorying displacement by writing reproduction back in: a critical physical geography of intersecting plantation, migration, and climate extremes in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Globalizations, 23(2), 171-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2025.2553937 

Coffman, M., Bremer, L., Summers, A., Newfield, C., & Kelley, L. C. (2025). (Un)managed retreat? Perspectives on biophysical and social dynamics of coastal retreat on O'ahu, Hawai'i. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 68(5), 1082-1104. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2023.2279019 

Rader, A. M., Biermann, C., Chignell, S. M., Clifford, K. R., Kelley, L. C., & Lave, R. (2023). Practicing critical physical geography: New trading zones and interactional expertise in an expanding field. The Canadian Geographer, 67(1), 10-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/cag.12828 

Piquer-Rodríguez, M., Friis, C., Andriatsitohaina, R. N. N., Boillat, S., Roig-Boixeda, P., Cortinovis, C., Geneletti, D., Ibarrola-Rivas, M.-J., Kelley, L. C., Llopis, J. C., Mack, E. A., Nanni, A. S., Zaehringer, J. G., & Henebry, G. M. (2023). Global shocks, cascading disruptions, and (re-)connections: viewing the COVID-19 pandemic as concurrent natural experiments to understand land system dynamics. Landscape Ecology, 38(5), 1147-1161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-023-01604-2 

Mack, E. A., Sauls, L. A., Jokisch, B. D., Nolte, K., Schmook, B., He, Y., Radel, C., Allington, G. R. H., Kelley, L. C., Scott, C. K., Leisz, S., Chi, G., Sagynbekova, L., Cuba, N., & Henebry, G. M. (2023). Remittances and land change: A systematic review. World Development, 168, 106251. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106251 

Kelley, L. C., Shattuck, A., & Thomas, K. A. (2022). Cumulative Socionatural Displacements: Reconceptualizing Climate Displacements in a World Already on the Move. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 112(3), 664-673. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2021.1960144 

Bremer, L. L., Coffman, M., Summers, A., Kelley, L. C., & Kinney, W. (2022). Managing for diverse coastal uses and values under sea level rise: perspectives from Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Ocean & Coastal Management, 225, 106151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2022.106151 

Bacon, C. M., Kelley, L. C., & Stewart, I. T. (2022). Toward a feminist political ecology of household food and water security during drought in northern Nicaragua. Ecology and Society, 27(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12716-270116 

Bacon, C. M., Sundstrom, W. A., Stewart, I. T., Maurer, E., & Kelley, L. C. (2021). Towards smallholder food and water security: Climate variability in the context of multiple livelihood hazards in Nicaragua. World Development, 143, 105468. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105468 

Kelley, L. C., Peluso, N. L., Carlson, K. M., & Afiff, S. (2020). Circular labor migration and land-livelihood dynamics in Southeast Asia's concession landscapes. Journal of Rural Studies, 73, 21-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.11.019 

Kelley, L. C. (2020). A Critical Physical Geography of Landscape Changes in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, 1950s–2005. In P. H. Page, S. J. Walsh, D. Riveros-Iregui, & J. Arce-Nazario (Eds.), Land Cover and Land Use Change on Islands (pp. 221-239). Springer International Publishing AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43973-6_10 

Kelley, L. C. (2020). Explaining the Limitations of Agricultural Intensification Initiatives in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.529074 

Biermann, C., Kelley, L. C., & Lave, R. (2020). Putting the Anthropocene into Practice: Methodological Implications. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111(3), 808-818. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2020.1835456 

Bacon, C. M., Sundstrom, W. A., Stewart-Frey, I., Maurer, E., & Kelley, L. C. (2020). Replication Data for: Towards Smallholder Food and Water Security: Climate Variability in the Context of Multiple Livelihood Hazards in Nicaragua. In: Harvard Dataverse.

Kelley, L. C., & Prabowo, A. (2019). Flooding and Land Use Change in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Land (Basel), 8(9), 139. https://doi.org/10.3390/land8090139 

Kelley, L. C., Pitcher, L., & Bacon, C. (2018). Using Google Earth Engine to Map Complex Shade-Grown Coffee Landscapes in Northern Nicaragua. Remote Sensing (Basel, Switzerland), 10(6), 952. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10060952 

Kelley, L. C. (2018). The politics of uneven smallholder cacao expansion: A critical physical geography of agricultural transformation in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Geoforum, 97, 22-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.10.006 

Kelley, L. C., Evans, S. G., & Potts, M. D. (2017). Richer histories for more relevant policies: 42 years of tree cover loss and gain in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Global Change Biology, 23(2), 830-839. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13434 

Evans, S. G., Kelley, L. C., & Potts, M. D. (2015). The potential impact of second‐generation biofuel landscapes on at‐risk species in the US. Global Change Biology. Bioenergy, 7(2), 337-348. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12131 

Yasmi, Y., Kelley, L. C., & Enters, T. (2013). Community–outsider conflicts over forests: Perspectives from Southeast Asia. Forest Policy and Economics, 33, 21-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2012.05.001 

Potts, M. D., Kelley, L. C., & Doll, H. M. (2013). Maximizing biodiversity co-benefits under REDD+: a decoupled approach. Environmental Research Letters, 8(2), 24019-24015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024019

ENVS 1342-001 Environment, Society and Sustainability 
GEOG 4335/5335-001 Climate Change & Society 
GEOG 4420/5420-001 The Politics of Nature