Montgomery Simus

PhD researcher

[email protected]

Department of History, University of Birmingham

LinkedIn

Profile

Monty Simus’s interdisciplinary PhD research centres on one of the world’s primary sites of contemporary water cultures in profound conflict: Pebble Mine, Bristol Bay, Alaska. His project explores the new, global dependence on energy transition minerals; how Indigenous and non-Indigenous imperatives intersect within debates on their potential development; and what Pebble Mine — one of the largest known undeveloped copper-gold-molybdenum deposits in the world that sits aside Bristol Bay, the world’s largest salmon fishery — can teach the world about growing tensions between decarbonization and conservation.

Monty’s broader research interests comprise water ownership, First Nations, climate-adaptive finance, natural resources, and the blue-green trade-offs that must be evaluated to make informed policy and economic decisions.  In the summer of 2024, he presented a paper examining clean energy’s ‘wicked problem’ at the British Academy’s “Water Futures: Historical Perspectives from Indigenous Ecological Knowledge” event held at the University of Oxford, as well as, a paper on conservation, decarbonization, and green colonialism at the Roosevelt Institute of American Studies in the Netherlands.

Primary doctoral supervisor: Joy Porter, 125th Anniversary Professor of Indigenous & Environmental History, University of Birmingham.

Secondary Supervisor: Charles Prior, Professor of History, University of Birmingham.

For more on Pebble Mine, see here: https://www.bbnc.net/our-corporation/pebble-mine/

In addition to his PhD research, Monty serves as the Global Director of Public Affairs, Policy, and Blue Finance for The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans and rivers of plastic — with millions of kilograms removed to date.  In 2023, Monty was an inaugural Impact Leader-In-Residence at Harvard University, focused on global water policy, conflict, and fostering collective hope for a water-just future.

Qualifications/Education

  • BA History, Yale University
  • MPP Public Policy – Development Economics, Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government
  • Senior Advanced Leadership Fellow, Harvard University (2015-2017)
  • Impact Leader-In-Residence, Harvard University (2023)
  • PhD Researcher, Department of History, University of Birmingham UK (2024 – present)

Publications/Writing

  • Simus M.F. (2024) ‘Transcending Transdisciplinarity: The Limitations of Transdisciplinary Frameworks In Addressing Clean Energy’s ‘Wicked Problem’ (paper delivered at British Academy Conference at University of Oxford, U.K., in July 2024) – publication expected in Spring 2025
  • Simus M.F. (2024) ‘Conservation vs. Decarbonization What The History of Pebble Mine, Bristol Bay, Alaska Tells Us About The Growing Battle Between Environmentalism and Climate Change, and The Darker Side of the World’s Green Economy’ (paper delivered at the Roosevelt Institute of American Studies, Middelburg, Netherlands in June 2024) – publication pending
  • Simus M.F. (2024) ‘Book Review of Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks, I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance’ in British Journal of Canadian Studies(https://britishassociationforcanadianstudies.com/bjcs/) – publication expected Fall 2024
  • Burt et al.  (2023) ‘The Design of Climate-Adaptive Water Subsidies: Financial Incentives for Urban Water Conservation in Morocco,’ Journal of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Development, [Online]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2023.236 (Accessed: 18 April 2023). [Collaborator Only]
  • Simus M.F. (2017) ‘Unleashing Tehran’s Water Renaissance’, International Water Association – The Source Magazine, Issue 7, May 2017, pp. 48-51.
  • Simus M.F. (2016) ‘Yemen’s Endgame in the Axis of Aridity: Turning Black Markets Into New Opportunities’, International Water Association – The Source Magazine, [Online]. Available at: https://www.thesourcemagazine.org/turning-black-markets-into-new-opportunities/   (Accessed: 29 February 2016)
  • Simus M.F. and Workman J.G. (2010) ‘Giving Our Choke Point The Heimlich Maneuver: A Bottoms – Up Egalitarian Approach To Reverse America’s Watergy Crisis’, Circle of Blue, [Online].  Available at: https://www.circleofblue.org/2010/world/giving-our-choke-point-the-heimlich-maneuver/ (Accessed: 1 November 2010)
  • Simus M.F. (2010) ‘H2Own: The Water Ethic & An Equitable Market for the Exchange of Individual Water Efficiency Credits’, Johns Hopkins Global Water Journal, [Online]. Available at: http://globalwater.jhu.edu/magazine/article/h2own_water_ethic_and_an_equitable_market/ (Accessed: 15 July 2010)
  • Simus M.F. and Workman J.G. (2010) ‘The Water Ethic: The Inexorable Birth Of A Certain Alienable Right’, Tulane Environmental Law Journal, Vol.23, No.2, pp. 440-472.

Impact and Engagements