Doctoral Dissertation Resarch: Alternative Power: Culture, Politics, and Development on the Navajo Nation

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Graduate student Dana E. Powell, supervised by Dr. Dorothy C. Holland, will undertake research on the social consequences of the pursuit of alternative energy development on the Navajo Reservation. The research will focus on four primary research areas, determined in the researcher''s preliminary work to be salient areas for comparison between older and newer energy technologies. The four research areas are: social and economic networks; production scales; cultural significance; and temporal framing (particularly, trade-offs between present and future).She will employ a multi-method research strategy. Her methodologies will include semi-structured interviews; life history narratives from key figures in the recent history of reservation energy development; participant observation; and content analysis of archival and public documents. The research is important because few studies have examined the contingencies of development in the context of contemporary Native America or explored how development projects generate new identities, knowledges, and historically particular claims on the future. The proposed project explores this largely understudied geographic and conceptual domain, within the context of mounting global concern over the future of energy technologies. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.