Nathalie Gatti is a graduate candidate in the Master of Arts in Global Governance program at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. She is a recent graduate from St. Francis Xavier University, where she completed an Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Development Studies and Political Science.

Throughout her undergraduate degree, Nathalie’s research was focused on themes of decolonization and sustainability through an intersectional feminist approach. Her research seeks to challenge the structures, institutions, and assumptions that proliferate inequity both in the Canadian context and internationally. Nathalie’s undergraduate thesis was a comparative study of grassroots and top-down land-based development initiatives. This project investigated the systems and structures that uphold colonial conceptions of land and learned from diverse, decolonial conceptualizations of land to better understand how development initiatives can either proliferate or deconstruct colonial land relationships.

In addition to her own research, Nathalie was also a research assistant to Dr. Kim Burnett. In this position, Nathalie participated in investigations of proposed American agriculture policy, related stakeholder consultation processes, and their climate and biodiversity considerations. This experience has contributed to her interests in food security, sustainable livelihoods, civil society mobilization, and stakeholder engagement.

As a graduate student at BSIA, Nathalie hopes to continue to develop these interests and focus her research on the ways in which rights-holders interact with and mobilize against international governance organizations.