Cynthia Twyford Fowler is conducting a research project entitled “Linking Environmental Change with Freshwater Ecology: An Ethnography of Water in Indonesia’s Arid Southeast.” Universitas Nusa Cendana is hosting the project with professor of anthropology Dr. Drs. Blajan Konradus, MA, as the counterpart. Cynthia is serving as a Fulbright US Scholar from August 2022 through January 2023.

Cynthia’s research project occurs in the Regency of Southwest Sumba on Sumba Island. The primary goal of the research project is to collaborate with Southwest Sumba’s residents to document changes in freshwater resources as they seek to share information about the changes they are witnessing and as they look for solutions to the challenges they face. The Fulbright US Scholar project was developed around a request from a collaborator on Cynthia’s previous research project in western Sumba in 1997-98 – that focused on the cultural dimensions of agropastoralism and was sponsored by Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia – to help his community study the water shortage in the Kodi region. He suggested conducting a research project together to study and write about the challenges Sumbanese face in obtaining enough quality water.

Using the methods of participant observation – with community members serving as research assistants and receiving compensation for their contributions – local people contribute to decisions about what information and knowledge are documented and shared about their culture as well as the character of representations of themselves and their families. As a team, Cynthia and her local counterparts search for answers to these questions: In what ways do Sumbanese interact with freshwater resources, and what are their thoughts about those interactions? What do Sumbanese think of water as it flows through their individual lives, their society, and their landscape? What water-related opportunities and constraints do residents in the Kodi region of Southwest Sumba face? Written and audiovisual recordings record significant information about freshwater ecology and everyday practices, as well as the spatial distribution of water and social relationships in Kodi. These methods will effectively answer the questions: What is the current state of freshwater in Kodi? How does it differ from the past? What do Kodi people predict and desire for the future? Analyses of the data will culminate in textual and graphical reports that could be meaningful or useful for local people.

Cynthia holds a PhD from the University of Hawai’i. She is an associate professor of anthropology and chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She is co-editor of the monograph series Global Change/Global Health published by the University of Arizona Press and the Contributions in Ethnobiology monograph series published by the Society of Ethnobiology. Fowler has published her research results in journal articles and books, including Fire Otherwise: Ethnobiology of Burning for a Changing World (2018), Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Interactions and Environmental Variations in Indonesia (2016), and Ignition Stories: Indigenous Fire Ecology in the Indo-Australian Monsoon Zone (2013).