Anna Zalik

Anna Zalik is an Associate Professor at York University's Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. Her research program critically examines the political economy and political ecology of extractive industries—particularly oil, gas, and minerals—with empirical focus on strategic exporting regions including Nigeria's Niger Delta, Mexico's hydrocarbon zones, and Canadian energy landscapes. She investigates the intersection of corporate security protocols with social welfare interventions and analyzes grassroots resistance to extraction in relation to financialized risk frameworks.

Zalik's scholarship centers on three interconnected domains: 1) The spatial reorganization of energy infrastructure amid market transitions and climate pressures; 2) The geojuridical reconfiguration of resource sovereignty in terrestrial and marine frontiers; and 3) The political economy of transparency regimes in extractive governance. Her work employs interdisciplinary methodologies spanning legal geography, critical policy analysis, and political ecology.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2018-2025) reveals dominant thematic trajectories: evolving governance of ocean spaces beyond national jurisdiction; contested transitions in hydrocarbon economies; and critical auditing of corporate environmental accountability. Her research consistently foregrounds decolonial critiques of extraction, with recent emphasis on epistemic justice in ocean governance and the racialized calculus of environmental harm in petro-states.