Chyna is an applied researcher from Taos, New Mexico. She is a current PhD researcher at University of East Anglia in the School of Global Development.

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My research explores acequia systems of water sharing and governance in Northern New Mexico, and is rooted in Feminist Political Ecology frameworks. Inquiries into water sharing and governance build upon understandings of scale, power, and knowledge, as well as the new exclusions and vulnerabilities that are manifested through each.

My research aims to examine water’s role and agency in shaping social relations, in producing resilience both materially and discursively, and in mobilizing power and adaptive capacity. Through this research, I study the colonial matrix of power and its expressions around land, water, and culture in Northern New Mexico.

I understand acequia water sharing and governance to be decolonial practices of relational autonomy. My research incorporates ethnographic methodologies as well as the embodied experiences of female irrigators. Inquiries are informed by the fields of water governance, adaptation studies, feminist and critical political ecology, as well as decolonial approaches to environmental justice.

I was born and raised within a small acequia community, north of Taos, New Mexico. My research is therefore accountable first and foremost to the communities from which I come. Prior to beginning the PhD, I directed the Working Lands Resiliency Initiative in Taos, New Mexico, served as a facilitator for the Rio Fernando de Taos Revitalization Collaborative, and formed longstanding relationships with a variety of agricultural networks including the now-members of De la Tierra a la Cosecha (Taos Valley Acequia Association, Taos County Economic Development Corporation, Alianza Agri-Cultura de Taos, Taos Land Trust). The relationships formed through both my personal and professional experience in Taos continue to guide my research and practice. Additional project work can be viewed, here.

PhD Supervisors: Dr. Iokiñe Rodriguez (University of East Anglia), Dr. Teresa Armijos Burneo (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Jessica Budds (Universität Bonn)