Heather Yocum's University Distinguished Fellowship allowed her to study anthropology, specifically climate change mediation, with Anne Ferguson, PhD, at MSU. Her research took her to the rural areas of Malawi, and the University Scholarships & Fellowships Advancement team was able to interview her via email while she was doing field work. She provided us with many photos from her time overseas, which you can view in the slideshow video.

Prior to coming to MSU, Heather received a BA in international studies and French language & literature from the University of Denver, graduating summa cum laude in 2005. She also earned an MA in antropology from MSU in 2009.

University Scholarships & Fellowships (USF): What did you research at Michigan State, and why did you choose to come here for your doctoral degree?

Heather Yocum (HY): I applied to MSU to work with my advisor, Dr. Anne Ferguson. I was very interested in her work with gender, environment, and development in southern Africa. I also appreciated that MSU encouraged interdisciplinary research and provided multiple opportunities to examine environment and development issues from multiple perspectives. I was very attracted to the variety of research and area studies centers on campus, particularly the Center for Gender in Global Context, the Center for Advanced Study in International Development, and the African Studies Center. All of these centers offered opportunities to expand on my Anthropology degree and allow me to pursue my interests in gender, the environment, and development. These are the reasons that I applied to MSU in the first place; however, one of the reasons I chose to attend MSU instead of another university was the University Distinguished Fellowship.

USF: What are you currently researching?

HY: My research focuses on how a new type of conservation project—carbon sequestration projects—impact access to and control over natural resources in Malawi, a small country in southern Africa. Carbon sequestration projects are created to encourage people to plant trees or maintain existing forests in order to promote conservation of natural resources and also reduce the amount of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. In Malawi, rural communities, non-governmental organizations, the Malawian Government, donor organizations, and the private sector are working together to create a carbon project in the communities bordering Malawi’s largest national park and several other wildlife reserves and forest areas. With funding from a Fulbright IIE Fellowship, I am spending 9 months in Malawi to study: how these carbon sequestration projects are being created and implemented; how this process affects decision-making power and policies about the environment; and how the livelihoods of rural Malawians who depend on these natural resources are impacted by the creation of these projects. I am particularly interested in how gender mediates decision-making power over natural resources, and how the carbon project will impact men’s and women’s use of forest resources differently.

USF: What led you down this path of study?

HY: In my first undergraduate international studies course, our professor stated that people don’t go hungry because there is not enough food, but because they don’t have access to food. I was hooked. It began an unquenchable thirst to understand the connections between politics, economics, and poverty. In 2004, I lived in a rural area near Meru, Kenya, where I worked with a women’s community-based development organization for 3 months. I was struck by the poverty I witnessed, and difficulty that women faced in their daily lives without the rights and freedoms that feminists have worked so hard for in the US. Living and working in this community, I came to see the importance of land and the environment in people’s lives. I also saw how men and women experienced poverty very differently. I knew I wanted to go back to Africa and conduct research on the relationship between people’s livelihoods and their environments. The Center for Gender in Global Context’s graduate specialization in Gender, Justice and Environmental Change has helped me to think about the gendered impacts of development, and how gender and sexual divisions of labor impact the way that men and women access and use natural resources. My pre-dissertation research on climate change policies and environmental policy in Malawi reaffirmed my desire to work with the people who depend on forests, trees, and land for their livelihoods.

Climate change—and the solutions posed to mitigate it—pose important questions about the sustainability of the current political economy and the disparities in wealth and development across the globe. Studying carbon sequestration projects is an opportunity for me to combine my interests in the intersections of gender, environment, and development, and I hope, make a meaningful contribution to a growing scholarship on climate change and social justice.

USF: How do you envision your research being built upon in the future, by yourself or by others?

HY: As climate change continues to accelerate, programs aiming to help vulnerable people and the environment will become an increasingly important part of international aid. Carbon sequestration and REDD+ projects are just some examples of these types of mitigation programs. I hope that my research will contribute to a growing literature on the social and ecological impacts of climate change mitigation projects.

USF: How did your fellowship impact your education?

HY: The University Distinguished Fellowship has been absolutely invaluable to my graduate education. The UDF has provided me opportunities to study, teach, and to develop professionally. In a field that offers little in the way of graduate funding, the UDF promised financial security both during graduate school and immediately after, since I would not be faced with the huge amount of student loans typical of most recent graduate school graduates. This peace of mind is priceless in graduate school, when stress about funding and eventually finding a faculty position—or any job— are ubiquitous.

When I returned to grad school, I had been working for two years, and I was changing disciplines, so the freedom which came with the first year of funding without having to work really helped me to re-adjust to being a student in a rigorous, new academic program. The funding during the final year of the fellowship will allow me to devote more time and attention to writing my dissertation. I hope that this will help me complete the dissertation sooner than if I also had to work or teach during this time.

Teaching opportunities are difficult to come by in the Department of Anthropology due to lack of funding; however, the UDF enabled me to secure positions first as a teaching assistant and later as a summer instructor. I have always wanted to teach, and my experiences as a teaching assistant and as an instructor confirmed this desire to return to the classroom.

USF: What are your future career plans?

HY: I hope to secure a position at a small, 4-year, liberal arts university in an interdisciplinary program where I would be able to teach and mentor students as well as continue my research. My dream job would be a 50/50 appointment in Anthropology and International Studies, Development Studies, or a similar interdisciplinary program.