Amber Wutich
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, University of Florida
SHESC Themes: Societies and their Natural Environments; Urban Societies; Biological, Social and Cultural Dimensions of Human Health; Culture, Heritage and Identity
Field Specializations: Ecological, Economic and Biocultural Anthropology; Resilience and Vulnerability; Institutions; Science-Policy Interactions; Field Methods
Regional Foci: South America (Bolivia, Paraguay), Central America (Mexico), North America (Southwest)
Contact: Amber Wutich, MH 112B
Research:
Amber Wutich received her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology in 2006 from the University of Florida. Her dissertation research examined how severe water insecurity shapes household-level vulnerability and resilience in Cochabamba, Bolivia, a city famous for an uprising known as the Water War of 2000. In 2006-07, she held a postdoctoral research position in urban ecology as part of the NSF CAP-LTER project at ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability. As a cultural anthropologist with interests in many of SHESC's research themes, Wutich is active in SHESC's cultural anthropology, environmental social science and social science and health degree programs. She is also a faculty member of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity.
Amber Wutich's research examines how cultural, economic, and ecological factors shape human vulnerability and wellbeing. Her research is based on rigorous ethnographic fieldwork conducted primarily in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and Phoenix, Arizona. She has also worked in Mexico and Paraguay. Her current research projects are focused on three areas: (1) urban common-pool water resource institutions in Cochabamba's squatter settlements, (2) reciprocal exchange systems among the urban poor in Cochabamba and Phoenix and (3) cultural variation in environmental knowledge and risk assessment in Phoenix.
Research Projects:
Culture, Health and Environment in Urban South Phoenix
Global Ethnohydrology Study
The Phoenix Area Social Survey
Teaching:
As a teacher, Wutich challenges students to think critically about the connections among theoretical, methodological and ethical issues. She teaches graduate courses in ethnographic field methods, social networks and cognitive anthropology methods. She also teaches text analysis/qualitative data analysis in NSF Short Courses in Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology (for anthropologists with Ph.D. degrees) and NSF Summer Institute for Research Design in Cultural Anthropology (for pre-doctoral students). She currently teaches undergraduate courses titled "Poverty, Social Justice and Health" and "Rules, Games and Society," and, in the past, has taught applied anthropology.
Select Publications:
Wutich, A., Lant, T., White, D., Larson, K. & Gartin., M. (2010). Comparing focus group and individual responses on sensitive topics: A study of water decision-makers in a desert city. Field Methods, 22 (in press).
Hadley, C. & Wutich, A. (2009). Experience-based measures of food and water security: Biocultural approaches to grounded measures of insecurity. Human Organization, 68 (in press).
Wutich, A. (2009). Water scarcity and the sustainability of a common pool resource institution in the urban
Wutich, A. (2009) Estimating household water use: A comparison of diary, prompted recall, and free recall methods. Field Methods, 21(1), 49-68.
Wutich, A. & Ragsdale, K. (2008). Water insecurity and emotional distress: Coping with supply, access, and seasonal variability of water in a Bolivian squatter settlement. Social Science & Medicine, 67, 2116-2125.
Wutich, A. & McCarty, C. (2008). Social networks and infant feeding in Oaxaca, Mexico. Maternal and Child Nutrition, 4(2), 121-135.
