November, 2023

Aubrey Edwards

Research and Creative Activities Grant Recipient

This grant, offered twice each year, is available to undergraduate and graduate students to support student research or creative activities related to the environment or natural resources. All current UW students engaged in ENR related work will be considered. The award amounts to up to $1,000 per student. Recurring deadlines is November 30 for spring funding, and the application can be found on WyoScholarships.

Degree: MA in Anthropology, Environment and Natural Resources (ENR), and Geospatial Information Science and Technology (GIST)

Hometown: New Orleans, LA

Experience: Research

Experience Title: Principal Investigator

Location: Kemmerer-Diamondville, WY

Dates: Summer 2023

 

Who will benefit from your project or research?

This is a community participatory research project in Kemmerer-Diamondville in southwest Wyoming. I am working with community members to preserve labor history through an ethnographic, multimedia website. The website comprises oral histories, archival images, video, photographs, and focuses on objects of labor that community members contextualize in their own words. 

 

How did you develop your project?

I first started working in Kemmerer-Diamondville in the summer of 2022, working with folks from the American studies department to collect oral histories as the town (potentially) shifts its power plant from coal to nuclear. There are so many incredible stories of labor to archive and preserve in this community, so I kept returning. 

 

How did you find and secure funding for your project or research? 

I have secured funding through various streams at the university, but the bulk of my research funding is coming from the Wyoming Humanities digital crossroads grant. 

In what ways did your experience impact your plans for your career or graduate school?

This work has shown me a void in state-wide, community collaboration in projects documenting labor. Not only has it shown me the void, it has allowed me to engage with funders and to lay a path forward for continued work in this sphere. 

Describe how the research you conducted relates to your major or discipline.

I am studying historical archaeology, with a background in public anthropology. This work shines light on the archaeology (material culture) of labor, while also supporting community members as they interpret their own material culture- a new arena of historical archaeology that emphasizes objects as cultural heritage.

 

 

Jere Borino's grandfather's miner's tag

 

Story has been edited for grammar and clarity. All photos were supplied by Aubrey Edwards.