PhD in Integrative Conservation & Anthropology
2018 and 2022 Spencer Grant
An anthropologist, Cydney Kate Seigerman studies how human behavior affects and is affected by water laws and agricultural systems. They conducted their PhD dissertation research in Brazil.
“My research integrates approaches from the sciences and arts to examine the dynamics of environmental policy and human behavior at the nexus of food and water,” they said.
Seigerman was awarded two Spencer grants—in 2018 to support preliminary fieldwork and in 2022 to support dissertation research—related to bulk water allocation in the Jaguaribe Valley, Ceará, Brazil.
In their PhD work in the Jaguaribe Valley, Seigerman observed meetings and interviewed technical experts at the State Water Resources Management Company (COGERH). They learned that, while the State had a significant say in how water was allocated, a new working group gave others some influence. The research contributed to a study with colleagues at the University of Michigan, Rio de Janeiro State University, and the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil that illustrated the complex relationship between democratic participation and the use of technical knowledge in decision-making to shape drought response.
They also learned about water-related inequality in Ceará, which motivated their dissertation. That work integrated mixed-method social science research, hydrological studies, and community-engaged theatre to examine the sociopolitical, technological, and environmental determinants of rural household water insecurity.
Their work highlighted the importance of public policies that incorporate local knowledge, such as the use of rain-harvesting cisterns, to improve household water security.
As a PhD student, the Spencer Grant supported six weeks of field research in Brazil, funds they augmented with a field research travel award from the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Institute at UGA and a small grant from the Department of Anthropology.
In 2022, the Spencer Grant covered some of the costs associated with household water insecurity survey, specifically allowing them to rent a car to apply the survey with households in rural communities across the region.
“One of the most impactful findings for me was that, while there is still much work to be done, household water security in rural Ceará has greatly improved over the past two decades thanks to public policies and programs, particularly programs to build household rainfed cisterns,” Cydney said. “Throughout my research, I witnessed the joy that rural families felt thanks to having a reliable source of high-quality water yearlong.”
Today, Seigerman is a postdoctoral associate in the Social Sustainability of Agrifood Systems Lab under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Jo Thompson, researching the dynamics of on-farm research and the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by U.S. cotton farmers.