Ross Martin's Qualifying Exam

Ross Martin will stand for the Qualifying Examination for acceptance into candidacy for the Ph.D. degree on Friday, November 13 at 2:00 PM via Zoom. All faculty (only faculty) are welcome and invited to attend. Copies of Ross’ dissertation prospectus and qualifying exam questions and answers and Zoom link can be obtained from the Doctoral Program Office (contact: elisabeth.barsa@yale.edu). Committee members: • Prof. Justin Farrell (Chair) • Prof. Os Schmitz • Prof. Chris Cannon (Univ. Alaska-Fairbanks) Instructions: Answer every question below. Demonstrate the breadth and depth of your knowledge developed in your elective courses and directed reading. YSE Note on AI: YSE uses Pangram, an artificial intelligence (AI) writing detection tool, to help maintain high academic integrity standards. Submitted assignments may be reviewed by Pangram via YSE’s Academic Affairs team as part of a holistic academic integrity review. For additional information on YSE’s academic integrity policies and its use of Pangram, please see YSE’s Personal and Academic Standards, and Disciplinary Procedures. Section I: TEK Theory It is well established in the literature that traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is valuable. We know that wildlife and conservation science and associated bureaucratic institutions have historically marginalized it. However, efforts to better incorporate it raise thorny questions about legitimacy and power. Drawing on major traditions within this interdisciplinary field, assess the current state of TEK research and how modern science is including it in their analyses. What are the most important theoretical debates about its inclusion, especially the degree to which the inclusion of TEK in modern wildlife and conservation science aligns with the full scope of TEK? What important questions remain unanswered? What could constitute a genuinely new contribution to the integration of TEK with wildlife and conservation science? Section II: Gwich’in Socialization and Epistemology Drawing on primary and secondary Gwich’in sources, explain how Gwich’in culture forms their epistemology. Using specific examples from Gwich’in cosmology, spirituality, language, customary laws, or oral stories, explain how these cultural elements form a knowledge system that is learned and passed between generations. What are the actual mechanisms of socialization, and what evidence supports your claim? Finally, how do these processes vary across people within Gwich’in life? Who gets to define what counts as authentic Gwich’in knowledge, and how is that authority established and maintained? Section III: Direct Experience and the Production of Knowledge Wildlife and conservation science has used various approaches and technologies to study and gain knowledge about ecology, demography, movements and spatial occurrence of wildlife species. As well, hunters, ranchers, fishers, and others develop practical knowledge through years of direct experience with particular environments. Drawing on theory from sociology, psychology, and related fields, examine the generalized relationship between direct experience and knowledge. Briefly review the various approaches that have been used to understand the life-history and ecology of wildlife species and the degree to which each gives firsthand practical scientific knowledge. Explain whether direct experience of hunters, ranchers, and fishers reveals firsthand knowledge that wildlife and conservation scientists and their methods do not or cannot? Under what conditions do these approaches converge or diverge? Relatedly, consider whether direct experience within TEK is similar or different to other forms of settler practical knowledge developed over generations of close experience with particular environments. What, if anything, makes TEK direct experience distinctive? Are these differences matters of degree or of kind? Section IV: Empirical Research Methods Part I: Gwich’in Ethnographic Analysis Drawing on your existing ethnographic research, select a substantial passage from your field notes or interviews. Apply a rigorous qualitative method to identify patterns and develop explanations concerning Gwich’in and wildlife. Explain how you move from particular observations to general conclusions, and how you would test those conclusions against other evidence. What contradictory evidence might challenge your interpretations? Part II: Wildlife policy analysis Select a substantive wildlife management document produced by the state of Alaska or federal agencies working in Alaska. Analyze how these institutions produce and justify ecological knowledge. Compare your findings with Part I. Where is there divergence, and what explains these differences? If these diverge, how much are these differences driven by fundamentally different epistemologies versus some other factor(s)? Part III: Your Role as Social Scientist Consider your own position as a researcher. Is your approach closer to TEK, Western science, or something else? How do you produce knowledge through ethnography, and what makes your findings credible to (1) Gwich’in people, (2) the scientific community, (3) wildlife management agencies? Evaluate your research against different standards of validity in social science. What claims can your research support, what claims it cannot support, and why?