PhD candidate Gao Yufang awarded the Roy A. Rappaport Prize

Gao Yufang, PhD candidate in the combined doctoral program in Anthropology and Environment, was recently awarded the 2022 Roy A. Rappaport Prize at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association for his paper, “Snow leopards and Tibetan Herders: Ontological Differences between Buddhist and Conservationist Ideas of Coexistence.”

The Roy A. Rappaport Prize is an annual essay competition sponsored by the Anthropology and Environment Society, recognizing the work of graduate students working in the field of environmental anthropology. 

Gao’s paper is part of his interdisciplinary dissertation on multispecies coexistence in the Sanjiangyuan (Three-River-Source) National Park in China. From 2019 to 2021, he spent 30 months living with herders, monks, and conservationists to investigate the interactions between snow leopards and Tibetan herders and their sociocultural contexts. His research integrates methods and perspectives from multiple disciplines such as environmental anthropology, conservation biology, and the policy sciences.