Troy Sternberg
Extensive travel led to Troy's interest in desert regions, environments and people. Thoughts on how arid lands functioned and why there was such great diversity and extent led to his DPhil on pastoral environments in the Gobi Desert (Oxford, 2009). Research focused on extreme climate hazards (drought, dzud), environments (water, steppe vegetation, desertification) and social dynamics (pastoralists, social-environmental interaction, mining and communities). Since 2005 Troy has continued to research in Mongolia; in 2010 northern China and in 2015 Central Asia became additional study sites. More recently work on drought and the Arab Spring has stimulated interest in how environmental factors contribute to contemporary conflict and displacement. In 2018 this led to visits to the Za'atari Refugee Camp, Jordan, Al-Shati Camp, Gaza and Colombia where 1 million+ Venezuelan refugees now reside.
