Meet Steph: A PhD Candidate in Environmental Sociology

I have successfully avoided the blogging world for some time, until now that is.  It seemed as if all my fellow English majors from back in college had undertaken their own blogs, some of them overseeing multiple endeavors. In the meantime, I’d focused on writing of another sort – academic writing.  As a PhD candidate in Environmental Sociology at Utah State University, I write with regularity.  However, the end product is usually more of the papers-and-journal-articles variety – interesting (I hope) but also prone to, well, jargon and a certain amount of abstraction.  Now, at the generous invitation of the Western Rural Development Center, I’m able to join the blogging world and, for a little while every month, escape the world of specialized writing.  I hope you’ll join me!

I would like to think I’ve been invited to write this blog because Betsy, the WRDC’s creative heart, sees in me some grand writing talent.  More realistically, though, it’s because I’ve been a WRDC graduate intern/groupie for nearly half a decade (yikes!), spending many a summer day in the basement of the WRDC’s cute little office building.

This year marks the beginning of my fifth as a Graduate Intern for the WRDC.  Back when I was a wide-eyed, first-year Masters student, then-Director John C. Allen was kind enough to give me summer funding.  A few years later, I have done everything from interviewing green entrepreneurs, to answering phones and making copies, to compiling an enormous database of demographic information on every county in the West.

I know that working for the WRDC has enormously enriched my understanding of issues facing rural communities in the West.  I grew up in the Chicagoland area, where public lands don’t exist and one town flows into the next in a concrete maze.  While rural communities in the Midwest face many of the same issues as those in the West, the context is quite different, given the uniquely self-sufficient character and physical isolation of many western rural communities.  The WRDC provided me not only with employment but also with an opportunity to learn the ‘culture’ of the West and the issues of its rural communities.  Throughout this process, I have gotten a feel for our stakeholders and our mission at the WRDC, and I am excited for the opportunity to use this blog as a means to interact with all of you in a more relaxed fashion.

What will I focus on in the months to come?  As I mentioned above, I am a PhD student in the Sociology Department at Utah State University.  I completed my comprehensive exams last year, while also defending my dissertation proposal, and was lucky enough to receive a dissertation fellowship from the Rural Sociological Society.  Thus, I’ve been able to design and implement my own research project.  This means that I am currently in the throes of data collection and analysis, both a wonderfully enriching and incredibly frustrating process.

In a nutshell, I am examining political mobilization and general social impacts of the Piñon Ridge Uranium Mill outside of Nucla and Naturita, Colorado, a very beautiful and remote area in southwestern Colorado.  The mill, in the permitting stages now, will be the first built since the end of the Cold War, and it has understandably elicited a wide range of responses in the region.

As our nation reshapes its energy portfolio and weathers a recession, this mill represents a potential expansion of domestic nuclear energy as well as a potential source of much-needed local employment.  Along the way, I have gotten to know many folks in the area, most friendly but some deservedly skeptical, and I look forward to sharing those experiences and others with you as this year progresses.

You may also hear the occasional ramblings of the hiker, biker, and snowshoe-er that lives inside me and absolutely adores the vast, inspiring landscapes of the West.  My husband and I try to camp and take road trips as often as we can, so we’ve enjoyed the wet coasts and espresso huts of Oregon and Washington, the tall peaks of Colorado, the clear rolling rivers and forested expanses of Montana and Idaho, California’s colorful hamlets and cities, and the enchanting desert landscapes of southern Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico.  As a sociologist, I believe these travels make me a better student of rural life, and I hope to share snapshots of them with you in the months ahead.

On that note, I would love this blog to be interactive.  Dedicated Blog Reader, please let me know via comments here on the blog or via Facebook or even Twitter what you’d like to hear about – be it energy, camping, hiking, sociology, or what it’s like to be handed a chunk of uranium from a local you’re interviewing.  Enjoy the fall colors, and I will see you next month!