Doctoral Dissertation Research: Bioprospecting and Scientific Knowledge in Post-Conflict Societies

博士论文项目调查了调动生物多样性作为在从战争过渡到和平的社会中建立冲突后未来的资源。在制药和其他行业越来越多地寻找替代材料来源来开发其产品的背景下，表现出高度生物多样性的地方对生物勘探--生物资源的调查、研究和商业化--产生了前所未有的兴趣。这项研究考察了当生物多样性被动员起来作为一种资源，在从战争中恢复的地区产生经济收益时，将面临什么风险。这名博士生研究生物勘探作为塑造当地社区期望、科学家实践和缔造和平愿望的一种手段的潜力。这项研究除了有助于对研究生进行实证、科学数据收集和分析方法的培训外，还将丰富对科学家在政治过渡，特别是冲突后情况下的作用和环境知识的科学理解。更广泛地说，这项研究的结果将推动对同时产生科学、自然和建设和平愿望的科学分析。通过扩大历史上任职人数不足的人和地点的参与，该项目将为在建设和平、生物勘探以及科学和创新领域工作的科学家和政策制定者提供信息。通过进行为期12个月的人种学实地考察，这位博士生将跟随一群科学家、农村居民和国家官员在实验室、沿海景观和政府办公室开展生物多样性和受冲突影响地区的生物勘探项目。这项研究将考察使生物多样性调查和市场化成为可能的条件，以及如何通过科学家、农村居民和政府官员之间的接触来体验和构成生物勘探。数据将通过参与者观察、实验室人种学、参与性绘图练习、访谈、生活史和文件分析来收集。数据整合和分析后，结果将在科学家、州政府官员、学者和相关地方的居民中传播。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The doctoral dissertation project investigates the mobilization of biodiversity as a resource for building post-conflict futures in societies transitioning from war to peace. In a context where pharmaceutical and other industries are increasingly searching for alternative sources of materials to develop their products, places that exhibit high biodiversity are experiencing unprecedented interest in bioprospecting—the survey, study, and commercialization of biological resources. This research examines what is at stake when biodiversity is mobilized as a resource for producing economic gain in regions recovering from war. The doctoral student investigates the potential of bioprospecting as a means of shaping local communities' expectations, scientists' practices, and peacemaking aspirations. In addition to contributing to the training of a graduate student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, this research will enrich scientific understanding of the role of scientists and environmental knowledge in the context of political transition, particularly post-conflict scenarios. More broadly, the findings of this research will advance the scientific analysis of the simultaneous production of science, nature, and peacebuilding aspirations. By broadening the participation of people and locations historically underrepresented, this project will inform scientists and policymakers working in the fields of peacebuilding, bioprospecting, and science and innovation. By conducting twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork, the doctoral student will follow a group of scientists, rural residents, and state officials in laboratories, coastal landscapes, and government offices as they embark on a bioprospecting project in a biodiverse and conflict-affected area. This research will examine the conditions that enable the survey and marketization of biodiversity and how bioprospecting is experienced and constituted through the encounters between scientists, rural residents, and government officials. Data will be collected through participant observation, laboratory ethnography, participatory mapping exercises, interviews, life-histories, and document analysis. After data integration and analysis, results will be disseminated among scientists, state officials, academics, and residents of relevant places.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.