Chilton Tippin

Chilton Tippin is a Ph.D. student in cultural anthropology. He focuses on environmental anthropology, with interests in the anthropology of water and development, the social lives of rivers, and the co-production of land, watersheds, space, and place. 

In 2018, he received a MA in Latin American and Border Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso. His project examined household water insecurity and residents’ perceptions of decentralized water infrastructure in low-income communities along the U.S.-Mexico border.

At CU he plans to expand upon these interests to consider the Rio Grande as a site and subject of ethnographic study. The project's goal is to understand various meanings assigned to the river and its waters by the many different communities through which the river interweaves, and then to aim those understandings at informing better watershed management.

When he’s not learning how to be an anthropologist, Chilton likes to write, explore, and climb mountains. And ski. And mountain bike. And he just got a packraft, too.

Publications

• 2022. Tippin, C. L., “Ranked-out Waterscapes: an Ethnography of Resistance and Exclusion in a U.S.-Mexico Border Colonia”, Journal of Political Ecology 29(1), p.208–222. 
• 2021. Tippin, C. A Tale of Two Waterscapes: American Indian Water Law and the Question of Quantification in Neighboring Western States. Journal of the Southwest 63(2), 231-254.
• 2021. Tippin, C. The Household Water Insecurity Nexus: Portraits of Hardship and Resilience in U.S-Mexico Border Colonias. Geoforum 124, 65-74.
• 2020. Hargrove, W.L., Holguin, N., Tippin, C.L. & Heyman, J.H. The Soft Path to Water: A Conservation-Based Approach to Improved Water Access and Sanitation for Rural Communities. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation75(2) 38A-44A.

Awards

2022 Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences Graduate Student Research Award