DDIRG: Boundary-walkers: Insights into expertise and practices of translation between Indigenous knowledge and Western natural science

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Coping with environmental challenges requires recognizing and harnessing multiple forms of expertise to effectively manage environmental change. This dissertation project investigates the potential contributions of combining indigenous environmental knowledge with western science to better understanding and manage rapid environmental change. It combines archival data and data from in-depth interviews with Indigenous scientists who have strong cultural ties to their natal communities to explore the ways that these different perspectives can be hybridized and aligned to enable their combined use in environmental policy making. This project supports graduate student training, the inclusion of Native Americans in STEM fields, and find ways to use Indigenous knowledge to help ameliorate pressing environmental problems.This project advances research within science and technology studies on hybrid forms of knowledge, scientific collaboration, and the science of policy making. It also advances efforts to promote environmental sustainability. The term “Boundary Walkers’ is used to describe natural scientists who are Indigenous and who have access to indigenous forms of environmental knowledge. Investigators seek to understand how Western and Indigenous knowledge systems can work together to confront problems arising from rapid environmental change, how boundary-walkers navigate across this divide, and how this knowledge can be put to practical use in environmental policy making. Data come from archives at universities, museums, and tribal libraries and associations, and from in-depth interviews with 30 boundary walkers. Overall, this original research provides pathways forward for integrating diverse forms of knowledge for practical good.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.