Dr Walker is a visual methods action researcher focusing on education, agriculture, and rural livelihoods in the context of climate change. He received his master’s degree in environmental conservation education from New York University and his doctorate in communication for social change from The University of Queensland, Australia.
Dr Walker currently works on a number of interdisciplinary research projects, including understanding rural adaptations in the context of climate change and livelihoods in East Africa; developing the social science evidence base for Zero Budget Natural Farming in Andhra Pradesh, India (in collaboration with partners in academia and government); and investigating the role of care, inequality, and wellbeing among transnational families in Europe.
Drawing on his background as a documentary filmmaker, Dr Walker has conducted award-winning research that focuses on the use of visual methods and storytelling as tools for knowledge generation and participant investigation. He has developed and piloted approaches which have been published in leading international research journals. The majority of his research is conducted in partnership with individuals and groups who are marginalized through both knowledge and material hierarchies in the context of climate change, rurality, agriculture, and migration. He is a review editor for the journal Climate Services, a member of the Global Research Initiative on Rural Communication, and a member of the International Association of Media and Communication Research.
Within the Himalayan University Consortium, Dr Walker is co-lead of the Thematic Working Group on Mountain Agriculture and has previously supported the Thematic Working Group on Water. Additionally, he was a member of the core team of the Strategic Working Group on Education for Sustainable Mountain Futures.
Dr Walker grew up in Kathmandu, speaks Nepali, and lived for over twenty years in Nepal. His 2018 book, entitled Movie Making as Critical Pedagogy: Conscientization through Visual Storytelling, is based on fieldwork conducted with rural and urban youth in Nepal facing the challenges of migration, discrimination, environmental degradation, and social disintegration.