Tori Jennings
Since 1998, Tori Jennings has been conducting research with farmers and ranchers on a variety of human/environmental issues including water rights in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado (BA); adaptation to climate variability in the American Northern Great Plains (MA); and currently, a critical examination of the sociocultural and political dimensions of climate and climate change in Cornwall, England (Ph.D.). By incorporating the insights of anthropology, geography, and environmental history, her dissertation project provides a nuanced historical analysis of the inter-relations between cultural constructions of climate, class, and social values. Tori’s goal is to show how and why historical and social processes that often have little to do with the earth’s physical atmosphere mediate our assumptions about the climate. Her analysis demonstrates that climate change discourse often obscures historically embedded and implicit power relations—relations that paradoxically undermine policies intended to tackle global warming.
Publications
Under review
“Headlines and Heresies: Why We Debate Climate Change. A Case Study of the Boscastle Harbour Flood” Cultural Anthropology.
2002 Farm Family Adaptability and Climate Variability in the Northern Great Plains: Contemplating the Role of Meaning in Climate Change Research. Culture and Agriculture 24(2):52-63.
Advisor
Paul Nadasdy
Co-Advisor
Neil Whitehead
