Katherine Borland (The Ohio State University)
Recent trends in university-community partnerships reenvision power relations between scholar/researchers and ordinary people (Alvarez/Nabhan 2018; Peters 2006). This essay explores the nuances of developing collaborative research goals with a project that is positioned within a web of state and national agencies committed to bringing gender equity to land ownership and management. As university-based folklorists work with community partners who see themselves as providing scientific guidance to a public in need of knowledge and skills, how can we carve out a space for knowledge exchange that is mutually beneficial? I draw my examples from a two-year engagement between the Ohio Field School and the Southeastern Ohio Chapter of Women Owning Woodlands.
Part of 03-02 Environmentalisms from the Bottom Up: Knowledge Exchange in Appalachian Contexts, Thursday, October 13, 2:30 pm–4:30 pm