Biosketch 2040 - Danica 1/16/19

Keywords: rural U.S., environmental anthropology, place-based knowledge, land management, pedagogy, politics of knowledge production, anthropology of policyDanica Loucks currently works at X State University, in a joint appointment between the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) and the Center for Effective Instruction (CEI).  Following her dissertation research on public lands conflict in southern Utah, Danica taught at Southern Utah University while working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to assess and revise how these agencies receive, interpret, and respond to public comments. Throughout this process she has encouraged an anthropologically-inflected approach to making sense of stakeholder desires and facilitated the incorporation of stakeholder views earlier in decision-making processes about land management policy. Her current work with XSU Extension involves collaborating with [name of state] farmers and ranchers and conservation organizations to set and work toward conservation goals that encourage agricultural and economic success alongside ecological health. Through the Center for Effective Instruction Danica has worked with faculty to incorporate social science perspectives into environmental science classes and degree programs. Additionally, she has worked with nearby schools to redesign how local and state history is taught in elementary and middle school curricula, putting an emphasis on histories and knowledges produced and preserved by residents from different cultural, class, and geographic backgrounds. Her most recent exciting collaboration is with the Y College Field School, a semester-long program in environmental science that has historically focused on teaching earth and natural sciences through outdoor courses and fieldwork in the Grand Tetons. In tandem with current field school instructors, Danica is developing two new educational pathways in the field school: one incorporates a history of science layer of analysis for students to better understand the cultural underpinnings of geology, biology, etc. as they engage in these sciences, while the other emphasizes learning the natural-cultural history of their field site and the political and cultural forces shaping the landscapes they have also examined through earth and natural scientific methods. Valuing her own connection to place and community, Danica is a 4-H Leader for the Shamrocks 4-H Club and is a cross country coach for X County High School.