NSF Grant to Study Vulnerable Communities in ‘Hurricane Alley’

Image: Hurricane Alley as photographed by NASA

The Department of Anthropology has been awarded a $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study areas in South Florida and Puerto Rico that are vulnerable to environmental instabilities like hurricanes. The grant, led by Adriana Garriga-Lopez, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology and comparative studies, and Katharina Rynkiewich, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology, along with researchers from the University of Puerto Rico, is titled “Rhizomatic Nexus: Cultural Dimensions of Ecological Instability.” 

Image left: Adriana Garriga-Lopez, Ph.D.; Katharina Rynkiewich, Ph.D.

The award supports three years of research which will take place in South Florida and Puerto Rico at various farms, hospitals and other institutions, and by meeting with key leaders and members of populations living in areas directly affected by ecological instability. The research will result in the development of tandem ethnographic laboratories and research training hubs at the two collaborating institutions.

FAU will receive $345,000 of the award and the remainder will go towards the work at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey. The Principal Investigator there is Patria Celeste Lopez de Victoria, Ph.D., associate professor of English and her Co-Principal Investigator is Patricia Noboa Ortega, Ph.D., professor of social science.