Graduate Student Spotlight Winter 2024

Arielle Milkman (Cultural Anthropology, PhD Candidate).  

My dissertation research broadly looks at what kinds of knowledge people need and cultivate in order to live with fire and how privatization and technology are shaping wildfire communities’ practices. As wildfires have increased in the wildland urban interface and megafires have increased in the U.S. West, some residents are newly in contact with fire and smoke, wildland firefighters and fire practitioners are traveling further and further to fight fires and practice land stewardship, and scientists are working with data related to wildfires in new ways. I have looked at how and why people move around to work in the wildland fire industry and to adapt to wildfire impacts in their communities and how people cultivate knowledge around smoke, fire weather and fire ecologies. My dissertation advisor is Kathryn Goldfarb.