MY DISSERTATION
Stakeholder Engagement within Water Governance Processes in the Klamath Basin:
A Power-based Analysis
How do collaborative governance processes in the Klamath Basin effectively engage
stakeholders with differing power levels and incentives to participate?
How does such stakeholder engagement influence outcomes for regional natural resource
management?
My dissertation, funded by a USDA NIFA Pre-doctoral Fellowship, investigated how multi-stakeholder collaborative governance unfolds in the context of heightened political activism and natural resource stress. My overall project examined the attempt to build collaborative solutions to water scarcity in the Klamath River Basin, a watershed traversing the Oregon-California border undergoing historical conflict and water governance changes, encompassing private, public (federal and state), and tribal water rights, and various stakeholder concerns. I used multiple modes of qualitative inquiry, including archival research, policy and social media analysis, interviews, discussion circles, focus groups, and a unique mode of participatory research called photovoice.
The Klamath River Watershed (& the West 2022)