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From affordable housing in the Bay Area to Indigenous land rights in the Klamath River watershed, environmental scientist Sibyl Diver’s work depends on building lasting relationships.
Sibyl Diver has been curious about the connections between people and place since she first traveled from rural, coastal Delaware to attend Stanford in the 1990s. Today, the interdisciplinary environmental scientist explores those connections in communities surrounding campus and beyond.
Diver, a lecturer in the Earth Systems Program in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and a recipient of this year’s Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching, creates opportunities for Stanford students and researchers to support and learn from communities. Here she talks about the importance of sustained, local research relationships and how academic inquiry can lead to positive societal impacts.
Your focus is community-based research. Can you explain what that means?
“It’s a very particular methodology that links scientific research and community leadership, where we ask critical questions about what’s happening in society and sustainability. This means we partner with a community member in asking and answering questions together in a way that is relevant to the situation and challenges that they’re facing. You can do community work in all kinds of ways, but for me, it’s central to how I do research. In this case, what makes the research rigorous, relevant, and impactful is working in a particular place with a particular set of people. The community impact work and the research go hand in hand and shape one another.”
How does this work impact communities?
“Local and Indigenous communities know a great deal about what is happening in their place, and can tell you exactly what issues are most relevant for them. They have their own leadership structures for affecting change even if that leadership has multiple centers and is not always visible to outsiders. And place-based communities also have a long-term interest in carrying forward initiatives that advance their social and ecological well-being over time – an interest that will persist long after a researcher has completed their study and moved on. For this reason, communities may wish to learn how to do the research themselves through what is sometimes called a ‘citizen-science’ approach.”
How does your work apply to local communities?
“Housing, labor, and transportation are some of the most pressing environmental justice issues we have in the Bay Area. To engage with local environmental justice issues I started a class in partnership with my students called the Just Transitions Policy Lab which conducts community-engaged learning projects with local organizations. Students in the course learn about environmental justice and what community organizing looks like. I also do community-engaged research on indigenous water governance, and I co-direct the Environmental Justice Working Group here at Stanford with Dr. Emily Polk.”
Your research on water governance with the Karuk Tribe in the Klamath River region near the California-Oregon border is focused on dam removal which led to the return of spawning salmon to the Klamath last fall. How did that come about?
“I got invited to work on tribally-led research on Klamath because I was working with Indigenous communities on salmon protection in Russian Far East so I had knowledge of environmental politics presenting huge challenges for sustainability cultural protections remarkable how many issues shared between Indigenous Russia tribes Klamath.”
“When I started my collaborations with Karuk Tribe my work included research engaged capacity building connecting them other scholars interested tribal community’s needs exciting PhD students involved tribally-led could learn pressing problems sustainability solutions context tribes like Karuk revitalizing ancestral land bases central ongoing academic-tribal collaborations Klamath study just completed Karuk Tribe conducts social impact assessment dam removal tribal well-being good example collaboration.”
How do you help groups see benefits participating?
“Learning respectfully tribes long-term relationship not easy difference folks dip toes really take relationship-building respectful tribal-academic longer period takes long time build trust establishes solid later collaboration occur quickly easily pretty amazing together awesome support long-term partnership.”
How does this make difference at Stanford?
“When universities figure out conduct community-based lead impactful meaningful collaborations generate mutual benefits increases capacity collaborative addresses most relevant tribes or groups benefit students academy arises being able multiple systems includes bring additional layer humility production rich experience expand beyond insular traditions include practice-based indigenous coming rural expands worldview awareness types problems engage enables think deeply who benefits from work.”
Chris Peacock
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