Graduation always proves bittersweet. On the one hand, graduation affords an opportunity to celebrate accomplishments and congratulate students for their hard work. On the other hand, graduation marks an ending, as students take their diplomas and move on. This year, I had two Geography graduate students successfully defend and submit stellar theses.
Anna and Ailin started in August 2021 as the pandemic lingered, affecting their graduate experiences dramatically. Still, they persevered, completing courses and field work despite the challenges. We had lab group every week, reading widely and creating a vibrant space for discussion and peer review. We even met while my family and I relocated to Vienna, Austria for fall semester this past year. Both Anna and Ailin contributed significantly to lab discussions, creating a dynamic weekly exchange.
A colleague at USGS and I, along with several other co-PIs, secured funding to support Anna’s graduate work. She found the project interesting and took it on with enthusiasm. Her project looked at how natural resource managers in our region, the Colorado Plateau in the southwest, think about and perceive adaptation, especially regarding fire and drought. She interviewed 37 managers, far more than most masters projects, gaining essential insights that helped set up her second phase, creating and disseminating a survey to a wider audience. Ultimately, 200 managers took the survey, creating an expansive data trove to analyze. She presented her thesis research at several venues and gave a strong thesis defense to a packed audience. She has begun writing up her results for publication, in collaboration with co-PIs.
Ailin, after some deliberation, decided to return to Peru for his field work, where he spent nearly two years in the Peace Corps before COVID ended his stint prematurely. His work took him back to his home village, enabling him to reunite with his host family. He interviewed over 20 people for his research, which looked at how mining and conservation intersect and created novel space in the Peruvian Andes. His work brought to light interesting and novel scholarly contributions but also created important insights into how mining has shaped conservation, and vice versa, deeply affecting inhabitants and ecological systems alike. He too gave a powerful and engaging thesis defense that received widespread praise and admiration. Few students have such a personal connection to their thesis research and even fewer maintain that connection while also remaining dispassionate and self-reflective.
Both Anna and Ailin drew on Political Ecology for their research. Anna also looked carefully at adaptation, as well as diving deep into the ecological literatures around climate change, fire, and drought. Ailin also drew on the production of space, mining, extractavism, as well as conservation literatures, especially around buffer zones. They both used theory to ground their work and did so in exciting, publishable ways.
Aside from their excellent academic work, they both were a delight to work with. I am sad to see them move on but am also so pleased with their effort and accomplishments. It was a pleasure working with them both and they both deserve credit for their effort and important contributions to their respective fields. They will be missed.
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