ABOUT ME
ABOUT ME
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I am an environmental anthropologist and Ph.D. candidate in Applied Anthropology at Oregon State University. I study how people make sense of environmental change, and how those understandings shape the decisions we make about natural resources.
I am an environmental anthropologist and Ph.D. candidate in Applied Anthropology at Oregon State University. I study how people make sense of environmental change, and how those understandings shape the decisions we make about natural resources.
Environmental challenges are rarely only ecological or technical. People experience them through different histories, relationships, values, livelihoods, and forms of knowledge. These differences influence what people see as the problem, what they trust, and what they believe should happen next.
Environmental challenges are rarely only ecological or technical. People experience them through different histories, relationships, values, livelihoods, and forms of knowledge. These differences influence what people see as the problem, what they trust, and what they believe should happen next.
My research makes those often-unspoken ways of understanding visible.
My research makes those often-unspoken ways of understanding visible.
I use ethnography, cultural models, qualitative and mixed methods, and community-engaged research to examine how knowledge and lived experience shape environmental decision-making. I am especially interested in what happens when different perspectives meet: between communities and institutions, scientific and experiential knowledge, and competing visions for environmental futures.
I use ethnography, cultural models, qualitative and mixed methods, and community-engaged research to examine how knowledge and lived experience shape environmental decision-making. I am especially interested in what happens when different perspectives meet: between communities and institutions, scientific and experiential knowledge, and competing visions for environmental futures.
My current work focuses on fisheries and water resource management in the Pacific Northwest, where I study how fishing communities and other groups understand salmon management, ecological change, and natural resource decision-making. This work connects marine and freshwater systems and engages broader questions of knowledge and expertise, legitimacy and representation, environmental governance, and community resilience.
My current work focuses on fisheries and water resource management in the Pacific Northwest, where I study how fishing communities and other groups understand salmon management, ecological change, and natural resource decision-making. This work connects marine and freshwater systems and engages broader questions of knowledge and expertise, legitimacy and representation, environmental governance, and community resilience.
Across research, teaching, and applied work, my goal is the same: to make complex human dimensions understandable and useful. I want my work to help researchers, communities, and decision-makers see connections they might otherwise miss and create more thoughtful ways of navigating environmental change together.
Across research, teaching, and applied work, my goal is the same: to make complex human dimensions understandable and useful. I want my work to help researchers, communities, and decision-makers see connections they might otherwise miss and create more thoughtful ways of navigating environmental change together.
OSU-Yurok Tribe Klamath Project
OSU-Yurok Tribe Klamath Project
As a Research Assistant on an interdisciplinary team studying post-dam removal restoration in the Klamath River Basin, I work alongside scientists, Tribal partners, community members, and resource managers to understand the human dimensions of environmental change and uncertainty. My role on the socio-cultural research team uses ethnographic and mixed-methods approaches to examine how lived experience, relationships, knowledge, and values shape the ways people understand restoration and resource management.
As a Research Assistant on an interdisciplinary team studying post-dam removal restoration in the Klamath River Basin, I work alongside scientists, Tribal partners, community members, and resource managers to understand the human dimensions of environmental change and uncertainty. My role on the socio-cultural research team uses ethnographic and mixed-methods approaches to examine how lived experience, relationships, knowledge, and values shape the ways people understand restoration and resource management.
Working within a larger interdisciplinary project has also shaped how I think about the role of social science in environmental research: not as an addition to ecological science, but as another way of understanding environmental change and its consequences. Through this work, I aim to make social insights more visible and useful across disciplines and applied settings, contributing to more thoughtful and collaborative approaches to restoration and resource management.
Working within a larger interdisciplinary project has also shaped how I think about the role of social science in environmental research: not as an addition to ecological science, but as another way of understanding environmental change and its consequences. Through this work, I aim to make social insights more visible and useful across disciplines and applied settings, contributing to more thoughtful and collaborative approaches to restoration and resource management.
My Doctoral Research
My Doctoral Research
My dissertation examines how ocean salmon fishermen in Oregon and California understand ecological change, fisheries management, and adaptation across connected river–ocean systems. I use a mixed-methods approach grounded in cognitive anthropology, integrating ethnographic interviews, free-listing, cultural models analysis, and cultural consensus analysis to examine how environmental knowledge is culturally organized, shared, and differently understood.
My dissertation examines how ocean salmon fishermen in Oregon and California understand ecological change, fisheries management, and adaptation across connected river–ocean systems. I use a mixed-methods approach grounded in cognitive anthropology, integrating ethnographic interviews, free-listing, cultural models analysis, and cultural consensus analysis to examine how environmental knowledge is culturally organized, shared, and differently understood.
I examine how fishermen understand ecological conditions, diagnose management problems and their causes, evaluate different forms of knowledge and expertise, and reason about potential pathways forward. I am especially interested in how shared understandings coexist with intracultural variation associated with lived experience, fisheries participation, geography, and relationships with management institutions.
I examine how fishermen understand ecological conditions, diagnose management problems and their causes, evaluate different forms of knowledge and expertise, and reason about potential pathways forward. I am especially interested in how shared understandings coexist with intracultural variation associated with lived experience, fisheries participation, geography, and relationships with management institutions.
Together, this research connects questions central to cognitive anthropology: how knowledge is culturally organized and shared, with applied questions in the human dimensions of fisheries. By examining both common cultural models and variation within them, I explore how experiential knowledge, ecological reasoning, livelihoods, values, and institutional relationships come together in fishermen’s understandings of management. More broadly, the work shows how ethnographically informed mixed methods can deepen our understanding of the human dimensions of environmental decision-making.
Together, this research connects questions central to cognitive anthropology: how knowledge is culturally organized and shared, with applied questions in the human dimensions of fisheries. By examining both common cultural models and variation within them, I explore how experiential knowledge, ecological reasoning, livelihoods, values, and institutional relationships come together in fishermen’s understandings of management. More broadly, the work shows how ethnographically informed mixed methods can deepen our understanding of the human dimensions of environmental decision-making.
Rebecca Quinn Wheaton
Anthropology PhD Student & Graduate Research Assistant
Oregon State University
Rebecca Quinn Wheaton
Anthropology PhD Student & Graduate Research Assistant
Oregon State University
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