Kurt Naquin

2024 – 2025 Global Change Research Fellow

Statement of purpose:

Before joining NC State, I spent half a decade working in the environmental justice movement in the Gulf South, primarily Texas and Louisiana, alongside frontline leaders pushing for a just transition away from fossil fuels and petrochemicals. I am Houma, Indigenous to Southern Louisiana, and I have seen first hand the disproportionate devastation caused by climate change related disasters and the destruction caused by polluting industries on Indigenous people along the Gulf Coast. The human impacts of climate change and environmental injustice is what motivated me to pursue my PhD, and see how the worlds of community organizing and scientific research can learn from each other. For example, people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. This tenant of community organizing is what made me so interested in the potential and growing popularity of participatory science, which is research that engages members of the public in generating new knowledge.  However, collaborative projects or partnerships can come with unchecked power dynamics between communities and institutions that may have more money or political influence, which can lead to extractive outcomes. When co-created or developed from the bottom-up, I believe that the various forms of participatory science (community based science, or citizen science) can be a great capacity building tool for communities most vulnerable to climate change. 

Description of research:

My current research project is on documenting Indigenous experiences within participatory science. This research is engaging and connecting Indigenous individuals across North America who have been or are actively a part of participatory science collaborations. Through qualitative participatory-action methods, my research aims to understand the breadth of priorities, needs, and considerations of Indigenous people who are part of collaborative science. This may include insights to data sovereignty and governance, conflicts or synergies between Indigenous science and Western science, and the histories of relationships in these collaborations. This research project is both an inquiry and exercise in using participatory and qualitative methodology, with an emphasis on storytelling, such as Collective Memory Work and Sharing Circles. Participants in this project will alo act (and be compensated for) as co-researchers, and together we will create a framework for nurturing empowering relationships, rather than exploitive partnerships, informed by their experiences. 

Contact Information:

Email: cnaquin@ncsu.edu

Faculty Advisor:

Dr. Caren Cooper, Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources