Headshot of Dr.Olivia Meyer

Dr. Olivia Meyer

Assistant Professor of Geography, Environment, & Sustainability
Curriculum Vitae

  • Profile

    Olivia C. Meyer is an assistant professor of geography, environment, and sustainability at the University of Richmond. Meyer’s research examines the cultural economy of urban sustainability transitions. She specializes in plastic circular economies in Bangkok, Thailand, focusing on competing environmental value systems that materialize in the circular economy and the limits to capital-driven growth. Her research agenda broadly asks, “What do plastic circular economies sustain, and for whose benefit?”

    Meyer has published on topics ranging from environmental transitions to the pedagogical benefits of student and community-driven field research. She draws from additional experience designing and leading geography field schools in Southeast Asia.

    Meyer earned a Ph.D. in geography and environment from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, an M.A. in geography from the University of Kentucky, and a B.S. in geographic science from James Madison University.

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    • Grants and Fellowships

      Research Corporation of the University of Hawaiʻi Graduate Fellowship, 2023-2025

      Fulbright Scholar, 2023-2024

      American Geographical Society Council Fellowship, 2023

      United States Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, 2021-2023

    • Presentations

      Invited presentations

      2024

      Panelist. Conducting Research in TLC Countries. Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies (GETSEA) Consortium. December 3 (virtual).

      2023                                       

      Co-Presenter. Collaborative Field-Based Learning in Southeast Asia: Value and Challenges. University of Hawaiʻi Center for Southeast Asian Studies Webinar Series and Department of Geography and Environment Lecture Series. Honolulu, HI. September 8.

      Paper presentations

      Meyer, O. (2025). “Valuing Waste as a Resource in Thailand’s Circular Economy.” American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Detroit, Michigan.                 

      Meyer, O. (2024) “Valuing Plastics in Thailand’s Circular Economy: The Limits of Turning Waste into Capital.” 15th International Conference on Thai Studies, Chonburi, Thailand.

      Meyer, O. (2023). “Volumetrics and Plastic Waste: The Contradictions of Microplastics in the Circular Economy.” American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado.

      Meyer, O. (2022). “Contradictory Subjectivities: Interrogating the Trope of ‘Uncaring’ Environmental Subjects in Thailand’s Plastic Waste Discourse.” 21st Annual International Graduate Student Conference (IGSC), East-West Center (virtual).

      Meyer, O. (2022). “‘Uncaring’ Environmental Subjects: Interrogating the Cultural Politics of Thailand’s Plastic Waste Discourse.” AAG Political Geography Specialty Group Pre-Conference (virtual).

      Meyer, O. (2022). ‘Plastic Addicts’: Troubled Subjectivities and the Circular Economy in Thailand. UH Comparative Asia Working Group (virtual).

      Meyer, O. (2021). “Troubling the Notion of ‘Plastic Addicted’ Subjects: Power, Essentialized Identities, and Subjectivity in Thailand.” Wisconsin Intensive Summer Language Institute (WISLI) Student Conference (virtual).

      Meyer, O. (2021). “Countering Plastic Addicted Subjects: Power, Essentialized Identities, and Expertise in Thailand.” American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington (virtual).

      Meyer, O. (2019). “The Plastic Pileup in Thailand: Tensions, Coalitions, and Frictions in the Grassroots Response.” UK Asian Studies Forum II, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.

      Meyer, O. (2019). “The Plastic Pileup in Thailand: Illuminating Local Voices and Perspectives on the Causes and Grassroots Solutions.” 2019 Global Symposium on Waste Plastic, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.

  • Selected Publications
    Journal Articles

    Yong, M. L., Fisher, M. R., Meyer, O., & Suryanata, K. (2026). Joint field school: Towards cultivating parity in research partnerships. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 50(2), 223–235. DOI: 10.1080/03098265.2025.2599827

    Meyer, O. (2025). Turning waste into capital: revaluing plastics in Thailand’s circular economy. Globalizations, 1–20. DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2025.2510089

    Loh, C.Y.S., Faturachmat, F., Haji Laidin, D., Andary, P.M., Faradiba Muin, V., Duerr, A., Alvez, A., and Meyer, O. (2025). Collaboration as Method: Field Lessons from South Sulawesi, Indonesia and Khon Kaen, Thailand. Forest and Society, 9(1), 358–375. DOI: 10.24259/fs.v9i1.39609

    Meyer, O. (2024). ‘Plastic addicts’: Troubling consumer tropes in Thailand’s neoliberal waste environment. Social & Cultural Geography, 26(3), 376–396. DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2024.2403103