M.V. Eitzel Solera
Postdoctoral Scholar
My scholarship sits at the intersection of data science,
participatory action research, and Science and Technology Studies
(STS). This combination is relevant and timely as data science
becomes an increasingly dominant way to know about both society
and the environment we depend on. Allowing this trend to continue
without critical evaluation, especially in conservation and
natural resources science, could very easily lead to reinforcing
structural injustice and environmental degradation.
As a participatory data scientist, I work collaboratively with
communities on modeling: teaching mapping and modeling skills,
collaboratively building data representations and models, and
analyzing and synthesizing community-held data as appropriate. I
employ a variety of ecoinformatic tools to understand and improve
the sustainability of complex social-ecological systems. I am
also working to apply Science and Technology Studies to my
modeling processes in order to make social-ecological system
management more just. As part of that, I look for ways to create
space for qualitative and other forms of knowledge to reside
alongside quantitative analysis, using mixed and integrative
methods. See mveitzel.org for more details on
my current and past work.