IUP Anthropology faculty Amanda Poole and Abigail Adams, along with four IUP undergraduate students, participated in an academic panel at the eighty-fifth annual Society for Applied Anthropology Meetings held March 25–29 in Portland, Oregon.
From left: Katie Vigue, Abigail Trimble, Kathleen Gollmer, and Samantha Langly
The paper presentations, titled “Orphan Wells: Sustainable Development through Environmental Remediation in Northern Appalachia,” highlighted the collaborative research that students conducted through Poole’s Environmental Anthropology (ANTH 420) course and Adams’ Ethnographic Methods (ANTH 456) course. Students explored, through ethnographic investigations, the cultural meanings, public health risks, and community concerns in Indiana County. It is estimated that over 300,000 gas wells are leaking dangerous gases, such as methane and other volatile organic compounds, in Pennsylvania, which impact air and water quality in our region.
Students combined anthropological methods to explore a complex environmental issue to understand local attitudes, identify barriers to solving the problem, and see how local communities’ insights can contribute to more sustainable and accepted solutions.
Kathleen Gollmer (Biology), Samantha Langly (Applied Anthropology), Abigail Trimble (Applied Anthropology), and Katie Vigue (Criminology and Applied Anthropology) presented their individual research.
The panel was funded by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commissions’ Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative and the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.