Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Self-Determination, Sustainability, and Wellbeing in an Alaska Native Community

第1款自决行为是为了过上健康的生活而采取的自主行为，可以在个人和社区一级实施，以支持个人的健康和福祉。 研究表明，无论是在社区一级还是在个人一级，缺乏自决权都会对个人的健康和福祉产生不利影响，其中包括教育和经济成就以及社会和文化制度的长期可持续性。 这个博士论文改进补助金项目与阿拉斯加原住民社区合作，探讨部落成员和非部落成员如何使用自决权，无论是个人还是作为一个群体，以实现可持续发展和福祉。 更深入地了解阿拉斯加土著人民的自决和福祉之间的关系，有可能为美国其他土著部落和少数群体的健康和福祉提供见解。 这些信息可以通过提供更好的教育，健康和经济政策，从而导致全国所有人的健康和福祉，对国家利益至关重要。 本项目采用人种学未来研究的方法，对阿拉斯加中南部社区成员所设想的未来进行访谈。受访者谈论他们的乐观，悲观和最有可能的未来，最终解释如何达到最乐观的未来。 与阿拉斯加原住民社区合作，焦点小组和社区会议将在采访后进行，讨论采访中确定的想法乐观的情况下，以及如何实现这些想法。对这些数据的分析有可能展示部落和非部落成员认为部落可以做些什么来改善可持续性和福祉，以及如何实现这些目标。这些数据有可能告知其他人，无论是土著人还是非土著人，通过展示如何利用未来的研究可以让社区成员通过规划参与自决行为，并可能做出改变，以获得未来更好的结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Paragraph 1Self-determining acts are autonomous acts for living a healthy life that can be practiced at the individual and community level in support of one's health and wellbeing. Research shows that a lack of self-determination, either at the community level or the individual level, can negatively affect one's health and well-being, which includes educational and economic achievement, as well as the long-term sustainability of social and cultural systems. This Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant project collaborates with an Alaska Native community to explore how Tribal members and nontribal members use self-determination, either individually or as a group, to achieve sustainability and wellbeing. A deeper understanding of the relationship between self-determination and wellbeing among Alaska Native peoples has the potential to provide insights into the health and wellbeing of other Indigenous Tribes and minority groups in the United States. This information could be critical to national interests by informing better education, health, and economic policies leading to the health and wellbeing of all people in the nation. Paragraph 2This project uses the method of ethnographic futures research to conduct interviews about the future as envisioned by community members in South Central Alaska. The interviewee talks about their optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely futures, ultimately explaining how to get to the most optimistic future. Working with an Alaska Native community, focus groups and a community meeting will be conducted following the interviews to talk about the ideas identified in the interview optimistic scenarios and how to achieve those ideas. The analysis of this data has the potential to demonstrate what Tribal and nontribal members think the Tribe can do to improve sustainability and wellbeing, and how to achieve those goals. The data has the potential to inform others, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, by demonstrating how utilizing futures research can engage community members in self-determining acts through planning, and potentially making changes, for better outcomes in the future.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.