Colum works on agrarian change in rural Java. Colum is currently a PhD student in the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University.

He holds a Masters in Environmental Management and Development from Crawford School of Public Policy with a thesis on governance in the Tonle Sap Basin, Cambodia.

His most recent publication appeared in the Journal of Development Studies. He also contributed a hydropower section to a UNESCO report on representation and environmental planning in the Asia Pacific.