2007 SfAA Student Endowed Award Recipient
Megan N. Prunty

Broadly speaking, my research is located within the field of environmental anthropology and examines the relationships that people and communities develop to ‘the environment’.  More specifically, I look at how individuals come to see themselves as stewards for the environment.  I am interested in the ways in which these environmental subjectivities are then acted upon by association with activist organizations, non-profit organizations, community development corporations and government agencies. 

My local research in Philadelphia examines ‘greening projects’ throughout the city.  I look at the ways in which various projects, such as urban farms, community gardens and brownfield redevelopment, employ ideas about nature.  I am concerned with how discourses of nature and the environment, as aesthetic ideals, are further depicted as having the power to create ‘community’ and transform urban neighborhoods. 

I received my undergraduate degree in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Anthropology at Temple University.