My research and publications have focused on transboundary environmental governance in North America (at bilateral Canada-U.S. and U.S.-Mexico; continental; and subnational levels). In particular, I have been interested in the operation of “transgovernmental” networks in the continental context.

I have worked on climate change and air quality issues and, more recently, on aquatic invasive species as a cross-border environmental challenge.

Much of my recent work has been done in association with the Great Lakes Policy Research Network (GLPRN), where I am a Research Partner. The GLPRN is a Canada-U.S. collaborative venture, aimed at developing new policy research infrastructure and tools for studying environmental governance and policy in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Basin. With colleagues, I have been working on a project which is designing governance indicators for the Great Lakes. We have produced a special issue of International Journal of Water Governance which is devoted to applying a set of governance indicators for measuring Adaptive Transboundary Governance Capacity in the Great Lakes.

• Wilfrid Laurier University Academic Merit Award, 2015.
• Nomination, Teaching Scholar Award, Faculty of Arts, 2010.
• Wilfrid Laurier University Academic Merit Award, 2009.
• Wilfrid Laurier University Academic Merit Award, 2007.
• Wilfrid Laurier University Students Union Teaching Excellence Award, 2007.
• Canada-United States Fulbright Visiting Chair, Duke University, 2005.
• Wilfrid Laurier University Academic Merit Award, 2002.

External Funding

• Co-Applicant (Network and Institutional Analysis team), SSHRC Partnership Development Grant: “Toward the Development of a Great Lakes Policy Research Partnership”, 2012.
• Co-Applicant/Co-Organizer, SSHRC Public Outreach Grant (Canadian Environmental Issues), “Designing Integration: North American Cooperation on Climate Change Governance” 2010.
• North American Linkages Grant, “Climate Change Cooperation in North America” Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, 2008.
• SSHRCC Standard Grant, “Economic Integration and Cross-Border Policy Convergence at the Subnational Level?: Environmental and Social Policy in the Canadian Provinces and American States, 1980-2000,” 2002.
• SSHRCC Strategic Research Grant – Federalism and Federations, 2002.

I am willing to supervise graduate students in the areas of public policy, environmental policy, Canadian-American relations, cross-border diplomacy and network studies.

I have research assistantship opportunities for graduate students interested in Governance Indicators for the Great Lakes. Contact me for more information.

Books Authored

• Robert G. Healy, Debora L. VanNijnatten and Marcela López Vallejo (2014), North American Environmental Policy: Capacity, Approaches and Transboundary Issue Management. University of Toronto Press.

Books Edited

• Debora L. VanNijnatten (2016), ed., Canadian Environmental Politics and Policy: Austerity and Ambivalence. 4th edition, Oxford University Press (publication date: Nov. 2015) [completely revised edition]
• Neil Craik, Isabel Studer and Debora VanNijnatten (2013), eds., North American Climate Change Policy: Designing Integration in a Regional System. University of Toronto Press.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten and Robert Boardman (2009), eds., Canadian Environmental Politics and Policy: Prospects for Leadership and Innovation. 3rd edition, Oxford University Press [completely revised edition]
• Debora L. VanNijnatten and Robert Boardman (2002), eds., Canadian Environmental Policy: Context and Cases. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press [completely revised edition]

Special Journal Issues Edited

• Kathryn Bryk-Friedman and Debora VanNijnatten (2016), eds., “Assessing Adaptive Transboundary Governance Capacity in the Great Lakes Basin,” International Journal of Water Governance 1 (Jan.).

Chapters

(total = 23)

• Debora VanNijnatten and Neil Craik (2014), “Bundled Transgovernmentalism and Environmental Governance in North America” Chp.2 in Brian Bow and Greg Anderson, eds. Building without Architecture: Regional Governance in Post-NAFTA North America. Routledge.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten (2014), “Environmental Policy in Canada and the United States: Climate Change and Continuing Distinctiveness” in David Biette and David Thomas, eds. Differences That Count 4th ed. University of Toronto Press.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten (2013), “Standards Diffusion: The Quieter Side of North American Climate Policy Cooperation?” in Neil Craik, Isabel Studer and Debora VanNijnatten, eds. North American Climate Change Policy: Designing Integration in a Regional System. University of Toronto Press.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten (2012), “From the International Joint Commission to Copenhagen: Bilateral Environmental Management in a North American Regional Context,” in Greg Anderson and Chris Sands, Forgotten Partnership: The Canada-United States Relationship Twenty-Five Years Later. London: Ashgate.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten and Neil Craik (2012), “Environment and Energy: Prospects for New Forms of Continental Governance,” in Jeffrey Ayres and Laura Macdonald, eds., North America in Question: Regional Integration in an Era of Political Economic Turbulence. Toronto: UTP Press.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten (2011), “North American Environmental Regionalism: Multi-level, Bottom-heavy and Policy-led,” in Lorraine Elliot and Shaun Breslin, (eds.) Comparative Environmental Regionalism. Routledge/GARNET Series.
• Douglas Macdonald and Debora L. VanNijnatten (2010), “Climate Change Policy and the North American Influence,” in Monica Gattinger and Geoffrey Hale, eds., Borders and Bridges in North America. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

Referred Articles

(total = 14)

• Debora L. VanNijnatten, Carolyn Johns, Kathryn Friedman, Gail Krantsberg, “Assessing Adaptive Transboundary Governance Capacity in the Great Lakes Basin: The Role of Institutions and Networks.” International Journal of Water Governance Special issue on “Assessing Adaptive Transboundary Governance Capacity in the Great Lakes Basin": 7-32.
• Debora L. VanNijnatten (2016), “The Aquatic Invasion: Assembling Transboundary Governance Capacity for Prevention and Detection,” International Journal of Water Governance Special issue on “Assessing Adaptive Transboundary Governance Capacity in the Great Lakes Basin":
• Neil Craik and Debora VanNijnatten (2016), “‘Bundled’ Trangovernmental Networks, Agency Autonomy and Regulatory Cooperation in North America,” North Carolina Journal of International Law Vol XLI: 1-40. In print.

• Policy Options: Federalism and climate change