Bio


Dr. Sibyl Diver is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist, a lecturer at Stanford University in the Earth Systems Program, and co-lead for the Stanford Environmental Justice Working Group. She does community-engaged research on Indigenous water governance from an allied perspective, focusing on Pacific Northwest salmon watersheds. This includes research on co-management (or collaborative management) arrangements between Indigenous communities and state agencies. She received her PhD from Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, where she helped build the Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative, a group supporting the Karuk Tribe's eco-cultural revitalization strategy in Northern California.

For over two decades, Sibyl has worked in partnership with community leaders on issues of Indigenous peoples and salmon around the North Pacific – in the Russian Far East, Alaska, Canada and the US. Previous to graduate school, she spent eight years doing international conservation work and facilitating international exchanges with community leaders as a Russian translator -- an experience that introduced her to the deep connections between salmon conservation and Indigenous peoples. She completed her undergraduate work at Stanford, earning a dual degree in Human Biology and Russian.

For publications and CV, please see www.sibyldiver.com.

Academic Appointments


  • Lecturer, Earth Systems Program

Honors & Awards


  • Excellence in Teaching Award, Stanford School of Earth (2021)
  • Paper of the Year Award, Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education (2019)

2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • Collaborative care in environmental governance: restoring reciprocal relations and self-determination ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY Diver, S., Vaughan, M., Baker-Medard, M. 2024; 29 (1)
  • Advancing Indigenous futures with two-eyed seeing: Strategies for restoration and repair through collaborative research Environment and Planning F Smith, C., Diver, S., Reed, R. 2023; 0 (0)
  • Indigenous nations at the confluence: water governance networks and system transformation in the Klamath Basin ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY Diver, S., V. Eitzel, M., Brown, M., Hazel, A., Reed, R., Fricke, S. 2022; 27 (4)
  • Networked Sovereignty: Polycentric Water Governance and Indigenous Self-determination in the Klamath Basin WATER ALTERNATIVES-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL ON WATER POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT Diver, S., Eitzel, M., Fricke, S., Hillman, L. 2022; 15 (2): 523-550
  • Including Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Environmental Assessments: Restructuring the Process GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS Arsenault, R., Bourassa, C., Diver, S., McGregor, D., Witham, A. 2019; 19 (3): 120–32
  • Recognizing "reciprocal relations" to restore community access to land and water INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE COMMONS Diver, S., Vaughan, M., Baker-Medard, M., Lukacs, H. 2019; 13 (1): 400–429

    View details for DOI 10.18352/ijc.881

    View details for Web of Science ID 000469000700017

  • Engaging Colonial Entanglements: "Treatment as a State" Policy for Indigenous Water Co-Governance Global Environmental Politics Diver, S., Ahrens, D., Arbit, T., Bakker, K. 2019; 19 (3): 33-56

    View details for DOI 10.1162/glep_a_00517

  • Negotiating Indigenous knowledge at the science-policy interface: Insights from the Xaxli'p Community Forest ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY Diver, S. 2017; 73: 1–11
  • Co-management as a Catalyst: Pathways to Post-colonial Forestry in the Klamath Basin, California HUMAN ECOLOGY Diver, S. 2016; 44 (5): 533-546

    Abstract

    Co-management frameworks are intended to facilitate sustainable resource management and more equitable power sharing between state agencies and Indigenous communities. However, there is significant debate about who benefits from co-management in practice. This article addresses two competing perspectives in the literature, which alternately portrays co-management as an instrument for co-optation or for transformation. Through a case study of co-management negotiations involving the Karuk Tribe and the U.S. Forest Service in the Klamath Basin of Northern California, this study examines how Indigenous communities use co-management to build greater equity in environmental decision-making, despite its limitations. The concept of pivot points is developed to describe how Indigenous communities like the Karuk Tribe are simultaneously following existing state policies and subverting them to shift federal forest management. The pivot point analytic demonstrates one mechanism by which communities are addressing Indigenous self-determination goals and colonial legacies through environmental policy and management.

    View details for DOI 10.1007/s10745-016-9851-8

    View details for PubMedID 27881890

  • Pathways to healing: Indigenous revitalization through family-based land management in the Klamath Basin ECOLOGY AND SOCIETY Reed, R., Diver, S. 2023; 28 (1)
  • Situating the Scientist: Creating Inclusive Science Communication Through Equity Framing and Environmental Justice. Frontiers in Communication Polk, E. M., Diver, S. 2020

    View details for DOI 10.3389/fcomm.2020.00006

  • Native Water Protection Flows Through Self-Determination: Understanding Tribal Water Quality Standards and "Treatment as a State" JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATION Diver, S. 2018; 163 (1): 6–30
  • Shifting the Framework of Canadian Water Governance through Indigenous Research Methods: Acknowledging the Past with an Eye on the Future WATER Arsenault, R., Diver, S., McGregor, D., Witham, A., Bourassa, C. 2018; 10 (1)

    View details for DOI 10.3390/w10010049

    View details for Web of Science ID 000424397400047

  • Finding your way in the interdisciplinary forest: notes on educating future conservation practitioners BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION Andrade, K., Corbin, C., Diver, S., Eitzel, M. V., Williamson, J., Brashares, J., Fortmann, L. 2014; 23 (14): 3405–23
  • Giving Back Through Collaborative Research: Towards a Practice of Dynamic Reciprocity JOURNAL OF RESEARCH PRACTICE Wentz Diver, S. 2014; 10 (2)