The Tools and Technologies of Transdisciplinary Climate Change Research and Community Empowerment in Barbuda

Focusing on the smaller sister-island of Barbuda, part of the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, a group of collaborating anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, education specialists, geographers, and environmental scientists are studying long-term human ecodynamics, the relationship amongst people, place, and the environment from the beginning of the peopling of a place through modern day. Our transdisciplinary approach brings together various field methods, tools and technologies from each field and crosses the boundaries of conventional science. This approach furthers our knowledge of climate change and facilitates practical and sustainable solutions for vulnerable populations

Mad Love: Life and Change in an American Adolescent Residential Treatment Center

This dissertation is about processes of socialization in a residential treatment center for adolescents in the American Midwest. I argue that this socialization occurs through a particular institutional cultural knowledge based on institutional practice and local formulations of emotionality. The learning and practice of new cultural knowledge, the power dynamics, and the transformation of subjective states occurred through various kinds of communicative events and ways of speaking, particularly through “sharing,” (through talk, body language, and intimate physical engagements) and emotional engagements (e.g., trust) within interpersonal relationships. I argue that this cultural knowledge is situated within relationships of power primarily based on racial identity, American racial inequality, and habitual practices of White privilege. I also argue that a transformation of internal affective lives of residents (and to some extent staff members) is the practical work of residential treatment. This dissertation provides an account of how people navigate multiple and often contradicting processes of socialization within institutional settings. I argue that the strategies people develop to grapple with competing ideologies in these contexts both reflect and make intelligible broader social dynamics that inform institutional logics and also shape people’s experiences in profound ways. In other words, looking at processes of socialization in institutions can inform our understanding of how ideologies are put into everyday practice and how this practice shapes how people come to experience themselves in new ways

Sustainable Resilience: Past, Present and Future Case Study of Human Ecodynamics From Barbuda, WI

This presentation was given during the Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference

Connecting Transdisciplinary Scientists and Local Experts for Climate Change Research and Community-Based Adaptation in Barbuda, West Indies

The historical and present-day interactions between people and the natural environment on the relatively undeveloped Caribbean island of Barbuda are being investigated to develop a framework to enhance future sustainability and resilience through local self-sufficiency. As a semi-enclosed island system, Barbuda provides an excellent venue to examine topics of sustainability, resilience, vulnerability, and the adaptability of people. Our collaboration includes natural and social scientists (anthropology, archaeology, geosciences, geography, and education) and local experts. Anthropology plays a pivotal role in integrating the knowledge and research techniques of Western Modern Science (WMS) with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and local ecological knowledge (LEK)