Recent Recipients

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While geothermal is a promising form of sustainable energy, there are hidden health risks, cultural incompatibilities, and other scientific unknowns. As a highly volcanic island chain, Hawai'i is primed for geothermal energy production, but elements of Native Hawaiian spirituality (such as a deep reverence for the Earth) has often clashed with scientific advancement. Because geothermal power plants require bore holes to be drilled and large plants to be constructed, there is strong opposition what is seem as a major violation of sacred land, also stemming from lack of communication and trust between scientists and the public. Conflicts have played out through legal battles and protests not just for geothermal energy and the construction of astronomical telescopes on Mauna Kea.

During the four days spent in Hilo, Dietrich visited the Puna Geothermal Venture Plant, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy at Mauna Kea, and the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai’i. Although they are different disciplines, astronomy has been the center stage of past conflicts with Native Hawaiian beliefs. This project focused on the prioritization of certain scientific knowledge over others, while also delving deep into how science and religion, which are often assumed to conflict, can coexist.

What is this Project About?

 

Martinez wrote and presented a paper focused on how indigenous women in the Andean region of Ecuador attain leadership positions and the obstacles they face in doing so. Family, community, and formal organizations both support and undermine indigenous women’s leadership. The government’s repression and the economic hardship present in their lives are also obstacles they have to face.  

As part of an multi-semester independent study, involving Bowdoin work and summer research in Andean Ecuador, Martinez interviewed diverse indigenous women before writing a paper which summarizes the research project she has worked on since last May. At the annual conference of the National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies in February 2016 in Louisiana, she presented her research on how the existence of indigenous female leaders is an act of open defiance in the face of societal oppression of women and indigenous people.

Martinez focused on the multiple types of oppression indigenous women face, and how they are able to carve out a space for themselves and become successful leaders in their community. Indigenous women have been silenced throughout Ecuador’s history and continue to suffer from the vestiges of colonization in a society that still has a white elite and lacks indigenous representation. Indigenous women are leading the way in the struggle to find a way to have justice and equality for indigenous people, women, farmers, and the lower class, while addressing issues of environmental destruction. The routes they have taken to become leaders and the networks they have, which encourage and undermine their leadership, are complex and critical.