UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State graduate student Megan Griffin, 2018 recipient of the Whiting Indigenous Knowledge Research Award, will present her research in a talk at 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 1, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, on the University Park campus.
Griffin’s talk, titled “What is Sacred in Food Sovereignty Research,” will explore the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of sovereignty in agro-biodiversity conservation research, and is the first in the series of Whiting Indigenous Knowledge Student Research presentations for spring 2019.
Presented annually, the Whiting Awards fund research topics that focus on aspects of indigenous knowledge for an undergraduate capstone course or honors, master's or doctoral thesis. Recipients present their research findings and write an article highlighting aspects of indigenous knowledge explored in their projects, for publication in Penn State’s open access indigenous knowledge journal, IK: Other Ways of Knowing.
Griffin, a graduate student in the Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development Programs, studies the gendered components of movements toward seed sovereignty in a semi-peasant community in Yucatan. She has had diverse experiences, including studying Mayan midwifery as a visiting student at the Autonomous University of Yucatan; research on labor, business strategy and policy for multiple union campaigns; community development and participatory design for recreation planning; and experience with the AmeriCorps VISTA urban food system program in Connecticut.
The Whiting Award program is an initiative of the University Libraries and Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK). A list of past recipients with descriptions of their research projects is on the ICIK website, as well as an indigenous knowledge research guide with library databases, journals, organizations and other resources. The award is available to all full-time Penn State undergraduate and graduate students, and is funded by the Marjorie Grant Whiting Endowment for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledge, and supported by University Libraries and ICIK.
For more information about the Whiting Indigenous Knowledge Research Award or for details on how and when to submit an application for consideration for project funding, contact Mark Mattson, global partnerships and outreach librarian, at 814-863-2480 or mam1196@psu.edu.