Bachelor of Science (BS), Ohio University, 2023, Environmental Studies

Ramps are a type of Onion found throughout the Appalachian region. They have been valued by Native American and Appalachian people for thousands of years, but have recently gained popularity with foodies. This popularity has led to an increase in harvesting, which puts pressure on ramp populations. This thesis deconstructs the impact that the foodie movement has had on ramps and their traditional users, as well as how ramps are perceived as a source of authenticity for foodies to consume. These ideas parallel greater trends of Appalachian resource extraction, media portrayal, and economic and cultural exploitation.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Advisor); Timothy Anderson (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Economics; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Law; Environmental Management; Environmental Philosophy; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies

Bachelor of Arts, Ohio University, 2023, Geography

Ramps are a type of Onion found throughout the Appalachian region. They have been valued by Native American and Appalachian people for thousands of years, but have recently gained popularity with foodies. This popularity has led to an increase in harvesting, which puts pressure on ramp populations. This thesis deconstructs the impact that the foodie movement has had on ramps and their traditional users, as well as how ramps are perceived as a source of authenticity for foodies to consume. These ideas parallel greater trends of Appalachian resource extraction, media portrayal, and economic and cultural exploitation.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan (Advisor); Timothy Anderson (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Economics; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Philosophy; Environmental Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Political Science

In discussing the intersection between business and politics, Robert Dahl claimed that there is "no dearth of important and even urgent questions." This dissertation tackles one such question: How do economic firm intervention in the development of the state influence modern outcomes? I argue that when institutions are in transition, firms and state actors both face uncertainty, and as a result, they enter an arrangement in which the state actor consistently provides the firm with public resources in return for patronage. I define this as state capture. Across my three papers, I find that when we focus on the role of firms in political development, there are widespread and long-term consequences for the state and local populations when the state is captured. Across all three of these papers, I explore these ramifications in Appalachia Kentucky. State capture is not a novel concept, but its usage is uneven and unclear, and there is no cohesive intellectual conversation. The first paper ameliorates this by taking this literature and synthesizing a concept from which we can derive clearer implications. I use Kentucky and the Appalachian coal region to explore this concept. I collect archival data to test one observable implication of the concept---lack of democratic commitment and non-competitive elections. I find the inverse of what I expect to observe, elections in Appalachia Kentucky, for the locally elected sheriff and tax commissioner are more competitive than my theory predicts. I discuss this finding considering my concept and argue that this represents a need for understanding how economic firms can influence political outcomes. The second paper applies the conceptualization of state capture more deeply to the case of Appalachia Kentucky, to create a model to better understand the region's persistent economic underdevelopment. I argue that compared to previous Appalachian development models, understanding the region's local politics as captured is empiric (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amanda Robinson (Committee Chair); Jan Pierskalla (Committee Member); Janet Box-Steffensmeier (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Human Ecology: Human Development and Family Science

The changing landscape of energy extraction in the United States has important implications for demographic outcomes, such as family formation behaviors and human capital accumulation. As the shale oil and gas (O&G) industry has grown over the last two decades, it has exposed new communities to the boom-bust cycles inherent within energy extraction areas. During the economically prosperous boom times, individuals may be drawn to an area as employment and income increases, which could influence the human capital levels within a community. Similarly, increased economic resources brought through O&G development may encourage marital behavior and influence other family formation outcomes, such as divorce and cohabitation. Conversely, an O&G bust could drive away human capital and destabilize marriages and families as employment and income decrease. This dissertation study enhances scholarship on family formation behaviors in extraction communities during the initial O&G boom and bust, which occurred from 2007-2018. Further, this study also examines migration of human capital during these economic cycles to see if the industry is drawing or decreasing individuals with more educational attainment. I utilize Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI) data to measure O&G employment, which allows me to separate shale extraction employment from other sources of mining employment to understand how this industry is influencing the aforementioned behaviors. I also utilize restricted American Community Survey (ACS) data for many family formation, migration, and educational attainment outcomes. The restricted ACS sample provides access to data for individuals in nonmetropolitan counties, which is severely limited in the publicly available datasets. As shale O&G development disproportionately occurs and influences nonmetropolitan counties, these data will be key to answering several research questions. In Chapter 1, I introduce the shale O&G industry, as well as trends (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Anastasia Snyder (Advisor); Michael Betz (Advisor); Arya Ansari (Committee Member) Subjects: Demographics; Demography; Social Research; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, Anthropology

Thousands of Andean peasants migrated to the Peruvian Amazon to work in artisanal and small-scale mining as the international price of gold quadrupled in the 21st century. During this time, gold surpassed cocaine in revenue and usurped its place as Peru's most profitable illicit export commodity. Amidst the gold rush, the past decade also witnessed a growing ecotourism economy that has capitalized on protection of areas with high rates of biodiversity in the Madre de Dios region. In this dissertation, I examine how contingent laborers and their households adapt to global processes of natural resource extraction and biodiversity conservation as they make a living in a rapidly developing region of the Peruvian Amazon where ecotourism and extraction are concurrently booming markets. Green business entrepreneurs, environmental NGOs, and other influential social actors in the region frame extraction and conservation as “contradictory forces” to promote ecotourism and other market-based conservation initiatives as the best responses to unbridled resource extraction. However, my research demonstrates that many households are unencumbered that these work opportunities are seemingly divergent or contradictory. Moreover, I show that households adopt creative strategies of shifting between formal and informal economies as they manage their precarity and work towards greater social mobility. In this monograph, I synthesize political economies of labor, household ecology, and social reproduction theory to construct a framework for understanding how families adapt to the concurrently booming economies of extraction and conservation. This framework helps to understand the agency of social actors in relation to the broader structural forces that limit their opportunities, from the household to the global economy. I identify how extractive lifestyles of the household are transmitted across generations and internalized by young individuals struggling to find their place in a rapidly (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeffrey Cohen (Advisor); Michelle Wibbelsman (Committee Member); Nicholas Kawa (Committee Member) Subjects: Behavioral Sciences; Cultural Anthropology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2018, Theology

The following dissertation articulates a constructive theology of creatureliness that speaks from within the particularities of Appalachia's spatial topography and religious culture. I analyze the historical development and ecological implications of industrial resource extraction, specifically the practice of mountaintop removal, within the broader framework of urbanization and anthropocentrism. Drawing on the unique religio-cultural traditions of the region, particularly its 19th century expressions of Christianity, I employ a spatial hermeneutic through which I emphasize the region's environmental and bodily elements and articulate a theological argument for the “creaturely flesh” of Appalachia.

Committee: Vince Miller PhD (Advisor); Silviu Bunta PhD (Committee Member); Kelly Johnson PhD (Committee Member); Anthony Smith PhD (Committee Member); Norman Wirzba PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Religion; Theology

MA, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Hydraulic fracturing is a traditionally unconventional form of natural resource extraction by which natural gas is released from shale rock located thousands of feet below the surface of the earth through the injection of a high-pressure mixture of water and other chemicals. This process has gained notoriety in recent years due to several studies, which document communities that have come together in an attempt to ban fracking. However, this has consequently resulted in a lack of attention being paid to the flip-side of these social movements. Specifically, how do perceptions of fracking and the affected community explain the lack of a resistance movement in many rural communities, despite the presence of several negative consequences of fracking (e.g., more dangerous traffic, the potential for environmental contamination)? In an attempt to answer this question, I have conducted a series of in-depth interviews with community members of Scio, a small rural village in Ohio that has been dramatically affected by the construction of one of the largest oil and natural gas hubs in the Eastern United States. Previous research has found that resistance movements against resource extraction development may fail to coalesce due to the moral exclusion of arguments that inhibit collective action of all community residents. In this research, I present evidence from interviews reveal that community residents are aware of and acknowledge the validity of arguments both in favor and in opposition to fracking development. Instead of moral exclusion precluding resistance formation, community members discussed how a resistance movement did not take shape because of the general perception of the futility in resisting the gas and oil companies. Accordingly, in this paper, I examine two distinct elements that contributed to that sense of powerlessness to resist or even ban fracking in the area: the strength of the gas and oil companies (including the power to benefit both individuals and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Molly Merryman Dr. (Committee Chair); Christopher Dum Dr. (Committee Member); Tiffany Bergin Dr. (Committee Member); Gregory Gibson Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Sociology

Doctor of Education (EdD), Ohio University, 2017, Educational Administration (Education)

The shale gas rush, commonly called the fracking boom, began in Appalachian Ohio in 2010. The region was of interest to oil and gas companies that wanted to invest in the Marcellus and Utica shale located beneath many of the state's 32 Appalachian counties. This qualitative study took place in seven of these counties--Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Guernsey, Harrison, Monroe, and Noble--where many public school districts decided to lease district owned property to oil and gas companies for exploration and drilling. This study considers how Appalachian Ohio superintendents and treasurers navigated the pressures and responsibilities of entering into legally binding agreements with natural gas companies. Semi-structured interviews with 20 superintendents, treasurers, and educational service center administrators were conducted along with document analysis of 52 financial documents: 24 independent audits from fiscal years 2010 and 2015; 23 five-year forecast assumptions from fiscal years 2010 and 2016; and five performance audits conducted between 2004-2015. Participants in the study reported that the decision to lease was first, and foremost, financial, depicting it as a way to pay down debt or invest in capital outlay and academics. Six major findings emerged from the study: 1) Participants reported they were moderate pro-actionists who were cognizant that fracking is a boom to bust industry. 2) Revenue earned by school districts from leasing deals and value-added opportunities is a stopgap. 3) Value-added opportunities (e.g. ad-valorem taxes) provided revenue opportunities beyond initial leasing deals. 4) Participants were able to engage new initiatives focused on educating-in, or reversing the propagation of what some scholars call the rural brain drain. 5) Revenue from fracking was invested with the bigger financial picture in mind. 6) As the fracking boom was unfolding, the potential for long-term powerlessness loomed for many districts and their surroundi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Frans Doppen Dr. (Advisor); William Larson Dr. (Committee Member); Charles Lowery Dr. (Committee Member); Geoffrey Buckley Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education Finance; Educational Leadership; School Administration; School Finance

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Comparative Studies

My dissertation, "Appalachian Anthropocene: Conflict and Subject Formation in a Sacrifice Zone" diagrams the dominant forces of historical subject formation to see how they shape contemporary responses to extraction-based development and environmental crises. My first chapter examines the new challenges posed by the Anthropocene and neoliberalism in Appalachia, and outlines the general analytical framework of material, conceptual, and affective systems used throughout the dissertation. In Chapter Two I show the violent rearrangement of these three systems as integral to dominant forms of subjectivity and resistance. I then present an overview of these forms of subjectivity before assembling a theory of oppositional subjectivity drawing from Marxism, decolonial, continental, and black philosophy, and queer theory. Chapter Three traces the boundary-making practices of settler colonialism as they shaped the settler-subject in Appalachia. I examine how dominant forces of subjectification emerged under colonialism, the harmful effects that persist, and their impact on contemporary responses to the land-use conflicts surrounding resource extraction and to environmental disasters like the 2014 Charleston Water Crisis. I conclude this chapter by arguing for a renewed attention to residues of settler colonialism in collective political responses to the context of the neoliberal Anthropocene. Chapter Four examines the unifying forces of white supremacy, nationalism, and capitalism as they shaped the citizen-subject over the two centuries following the War of Independence. In this chapter I examine the geopolitical production of the national territory of the United States and socio-political production of the national subject of the American Citizen. I then present oppositional responses to dominant American subjectivity in the writing of the militant Appalachian preacher and poet Don West. I show how he helps us to understand these discourses and more importantly, help (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Eugene Holland (Committee Chair) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Comparative Literature; Economic History; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Law; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Native American Studies; Philosophy; Regional Studies

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2006, International Studies - International Development Studies

The research study describes the influence of human activities on four sacred groves in Pune district, Maharashtra, which is situated at the northern end of the Western Ghats region of India. Sacred groves are forest patches set aside for a local deity, and their use is regulated by various rules governing resource extraction. Pune has one of the highest numbers of sacred groves in Maharashtra. Qualitative interviews conducted in the four villages associated with the groves and quantitative data describing forest characteristics in the sacred and non-sacred stands served as the basis for this analysis. A host of socio-religious and economic activities are carried out in the sacred groves, but restrained use helps in minimizing human impact on the groves as compared to the non-sacred forest. The groves are isolated fragments of forest, however, and often small in extent, which limits their conservation potential.

Committee: Glenn Matlack (Advisor) Subjects: