Doctoral Dissertation Research: Bioprospecting and Scientific Knowledge in Post-Conflict Societies

The doctoral dissertation project investigates the mobilization of biodiversity as a resource for building post-conflict futures in societies transitioning from war to peace. In a context where pharmaceutical and other industries are increasingly searching for alternative sources of materials to develop their products, places that exhibit high biodiversity are experiencing unprecedented interest in bioprospecting—the survey, study, and commercialization of biological resources.

This research examines what is at stake when biodiversity is mobilized as a resource for producing economic gain in regions recovering from war. The doctoral student investigates the potential of bioprospecting as a means of shaping local communities' expectations, scientists' practices, and peacemaking aspirations. In addition to contributing to the training of a graduate student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, this research will enrich scientific understanding of the role of scientists and environmental knowledge in the context of political transition, particularly post-conflict scenarios.

More broadly, the findings of this research will advance the scientific analysis of the simultaneous production of science, nature, and peacebuilding aspirations. By broadening the participation of people and locations historically underrepresented, this project will inform scientists and policymakers working in the fields of peacebuilding, bioprospecting, and science and innovation.

By conducting twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork, the doctoral student will follow a group of scientists, rural residents, and state officials in laboratories, coastal landscapes, and government offices as they embark on a bioprospecting project in a biodiverse and conflict-affected area. This research will examine the conditions that enable the survey and marketization of biodiversity and how bioprospecting is experienced and constituted through the encounters between scientists, rural residents, and government officials.

Data will be collected through participant observation, laboratory ethnography, participatory mapping exercises, interviews, life-histories, and document analysis. After data integration and analysis, results will be disseminated among scientists, state officials, academics, and residents of relevant places.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.