Shelby Kinch is a first-year doctoral student in the Anthropology program from Missoula, Montana. Her research explores how shifts in the American economy have impacted corporate land management, with attention to impacts on water rights in the Mountain Northwest. Her work draws on economic anthropology, legal anthropology, semiotics, and environmental studies to consider issues of water access and resource commodification.
Shelby received her A.B. with highest honors in Anthropology from Princeton with a focus on Law, Politics, and Economics and a certificate in Linguistics. Her thesis focused on anthropological approaches to power, shareholder value, and semiotic grounds in the hospitality industry by tracing the rise of CEOs, stock buybacks, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). Shelby is currently a 2025-2026 Graduate Fellow in the Environmental Humanities at the Whitney Humanities Center.
Keywords: Semiotics; Environmental Anthropology; Corporate Anthropology; Anthropology of Water; Mountain Northwest; Montana