Paul Burow

Graduate Student

Division:

Sociocultural & School of the Environment

Adviser(s):

Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, Justin Farrell (YSE), and Michael R. Dove

Degree(s):

M.Phil. Yale University 2019; M.E.Sc. Yale University, 2016 ; B.A. University of California Davis, 2007

paul.burow@yale.edu

Website

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the combined doctoral degree program between the Department of Anthropology and School of the Environment at Yale University. I am an interdisciplinary social-environmental scientist studying how human communities are impacted by environmental change. My work addresses the cultural dynamics of environmental change, rural social inequality, and Indigenous environmental justice in North America.

My dissertation, The Ecology of Belonging: Cultural Dynamics of Environmental Change in the American West, examines how Indigenous and rural communities are impacted by changing ecosystems tied to land-use practices, climate change, and settler colonialism in the western United States. It investigates changing configurations of plants and animals on landscapes as they intersect with the cultural practices of Indigenous peoples and ranchers on public lands by attending to shifting experiences of social belonging and sense of place. It also examines environmental governance and how rural communities, Indigenous nations, and federal government agencies interact over contentious land management issues involving novel ecosystems, cultural resources, and the restoration of native species. This project offers insight into the impacts of land management and public lands policy on Indigenous and rural communities facing rapid socioecological change in the United States. It links material changes on the landscape to historical land management practices and shifting experiences of place that are affecting the land-based practices and cultural attachments that communities maintain with rural lands.

My work informs cutting-edge public lands policy and practice for diverse rural communities with strong cultural ties to landscapes across North America. My research methods draw from anthropology and the human environmental sciences, using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches including: ethnography, household/social surveys, historical archives, social-ecological field surveys, and spatial analysis.

My research is funded through Yale University and external grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wenner-Gren Foundation, National Science Foundation, and University of California.

Keywords: conservation, culture and politics, environmental governance, environmental justice, ethnoecology, forestry and forest ecology, indigeneity, multispecies ethnography, ranching, settler colonialism.

Geographies: North America, United States, Native America, American West, California, Nevada.

See *new* work on the long-term impacts of land dispossession and forced migration on Indigenous peoples in North America: http://nativelandresearch.org/

Curriculum vitae

Selected Publications

Journal Articles (Peer-reviewed)

Farrell, J., P.B. Burow, K. McConnell, J. Bayham, K.P. Whyte, and G. Koss. 2021. “Effects of Land Dispossession and Forced Migration on Indigenous Peoples in North America.” Science 374(6567): eabe4943. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe4943

Mueller, J.T., K. McConnell, P.B. Burow, K. Pofahl, A.A. Merdjanoff, and J. Farrell. 2021. “Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Rural America.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118: e2019378118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2019378118

Burow, P.B., K. McConnell, and J. Farrell. 2019. “Social Scientific Research on the American West: Current Debates, Novel Methods, and New Directions.” Environmental Research Letters 14: e125012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4030

Burow, P.B., S. Brock, and M. R. Dove. 2018. “Unsettling the Land: Indigeneity, Ontology, and Hybridity in Settler Colonialism.” Environment and Society 9(1): 57-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2018.090105

Book Chapters (Peer-reviewed)

Koh, V., P.B. Burow, L. Kanoi, and M.R. Dove. 2021. “Locating the ‘Rural’ in Anthropology.” The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Anthropology. Lene Pedersen and Lisa Cliggett, eds. pp. 296-310. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishers. https://www.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-sage-handbook-of-cultural-anthropology/book270178

Burow, P.B. 2020. “Nature’s Belonging: Landscapes, Conservation and the Cultural Politics of Place in the Great Basin.” In Public Lands in the Western U.S.: Place and Politics in the Clash between Public and Private, K. Sullivan and J. McDonald, eds. pp. 175-197. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793637079/Public-Lands-in-the-Western-US-Place-and-Politics-in-the-Clash-between-Public-and-Private

Burow P.B., S. Brock, and M.R. Dove. 2020. “Land, Indigeneity, and Hybrid Ontologies.” In Living Earth Community: Multiple Ways of Being and Knowing. S. Mickey, M. Tucker, and J. Grim, eds. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. pp 193-202. DOI: http://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0186

Dove, M. R., A. Johnson, M. Lefebvre, P.B. Burow, W. Zhou, and L. Kanoi. 2019. “Who Is in the Commons: Defining Community, Commons, and Time in Long-Term Natural Resource Management.” Global Perspectives on Long Term Community Resource Management. L. R. Lozny and T. H. McGovern, eds. Cham: Springer. pp 23-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15800-2_3

Essays, Reports, and Book Reviews

Burow, P.B. 2021. “Burning Through History in California’s ‘Asbestos’ Forests.” Hot Spots: Fieldsights. Society for Cultural Anthropology. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/burning-through-history-in-californias-asbestos-forests

Mueller, J.T., J. Farrell, K. McConnell, and P.B. Burow. 2021. “COVID-19 and Poverty in Rural Areas: The Experience of the United States.” Working Paper for Expert Group Meeting on Implementation of the Third United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty. United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2021-meetings/egm-3rd-decade-poverty.html

Farrell, J., K. McConnell, and P.B. Burow. “The Pandemic Hit Rural America and Changed Its Attitudes About Government.” Barron’s. October 8, 2020. https://www.barrons.com/amp/articles/the-pandemic-hit-rural-america-and-changed-its-attitudes-about-government-51602189510

Farrell, J., J.T. Mueller, K. McConnell, P.B. Burow, K. Pofahl, and A.A. Merdjanoff. 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on the Rural West: Material Needs, Economic Recovery, and Political Attitudes. Executive Summary of Research Findings. New Haven, CT: Yale School of the Environment. https://doi.org/10079/08e2da0a-551b-46a6-a1a2-ad98816a7870

Burow, P.B. 2017. “Wildlife Conservation and Settler Colonialism in the North American West.” Engagement: A Blog of the Anthropology & Environment Society. March 28, 2017. https://aesengagement.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/wildlife-conservation-and-settler-colonialism-in-the-north-american-west/