Kim de Rijke

Dr Kim de Rijke is Senior Lecturer and Director of Higher Degree Research in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland. De Rijke completed a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland in 2012, with a thesis entitled Water, place and community: an ethnography of environmental engagement, emplaced identity and the traveston crossing dam dispute in Queensland, Australia. Research specializations encompass environmental anthropology, including energy transitions and unconventional gas developments such as coal seam gas and hydraulic fracturing, water and fracking, Indigenous engagement and native title claims, cultural heritage and cultural values studies, social impact assessment, human-environment relations, climate change, and applied anthropology in resource industries. De Rijke's work features expert anthropological reports for native title proceedings, Federal Court expert evidence, joint expert conferences, peer reviews, cultural values assessments for infrastructure projects including dam raisings, port developments, and carbon initiatives, and briefing notes on Indigenous rights and agreement-making.

De Rijke's career at the University of Queensland includes postdoctoral research fellowship, lecturing, and advancement to senior lecturer, with principal and associate supervision of PhD candidates on topics such as contested water values, climate change and cultural heritage, and Indigenous landholder corporatisation. Funding secured includes the Centre for Native Title Anthropology Native Title Anthropologist Grant Program (2025-2028), Gaangalu Nation additional native title inputs (2014-2026), UQ Early Career Researcher grant for foraging theory research (2019-2021), and UniQuest projects for native title connection reports and cultural heritage. Key publications comprise journal articles including The Golden Age of Gas and the energy crisis (Anthropology Today, 2022), Produced water, money water, living water: anthropological perspectives on water and fracking (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 2018), Energy, anthropology and ethnography: on the challenges of studying unconventional gas developments in Australia (Energy Research and Social Science, 2018), Hydraulically fractured: unconventional gas and anthropology (Anthropology Today, 2013), and book chapters such as Drilling down comparatively: resource histories, subterranean unconventional gas and diverging social responses in two Australian regions (Pluto Press, 2019) and Cultural domains and the theory of customary environmentalism in Indigenous Australia (ANU Press, 2016). De Rijke has presented conference papers on gendered knowledge in native title, unconventional gas on Indigenous estates, and key concepts in native title law and custom.

Professional Email: k.derijke@uq.edu.au