How can ecological science collaborate more equitably with local knowledge holders to co-produce the understandings necessary for solving large-scale environmental problems? My research de-centers Euro-American scientific paradigms by viewing them as locally-rooted epistemic cultures that are always drawing from—and contributing to—other cultures’ ways of organizing knowledge. Central to my inquiries are the intersecting roles of socio-political power with geographic scale in shaping how experts and non-experts interact. These questions address concerns about the local relevance, and ultimately effectiveness, of globalized environmental conservation in an ecologically connected world.
My intended dissertation research will bring me back to Xishuangbanna Prefecture in southwest China, where my undergraduate honors research explored social psychological predictors of bird hunting among ethnic minority rubber farmers and where my subsequent Fulbright fellowship research tested hypotheses regarding how conservation messaging could spread among social networks of wild meat consumers. These experiences provided me a strong background in quantitative survey research methodologies from which I drew as a social data scientist at Yale Program on Climate Change Communication during my master’s studies. However, I have felt troubled by the inability of my scientific worldview to enable satisfactory cultural understandings of my hosts in China, both Han and ethnic minority. My master’s research pivoted toward qualitative interview methods while I examined data collaboration in migratory waterbird conservation along the East-Asian Australasian Flyway, and all the while I felt intrigued by the ways cultural differences—in this case Chinese and Western—shape how conservationists learn about the birds they are trying to save. Although I am new to the field, I have begun self-identifying with the Anthropology of Science.
Francis Commercon's CV