Dr. Trevor Birkenholtz
Department of Geography
54 Joyce Kilmer Drive                                                                       
Piscataway NJ 08854-8045
Tel: 732.445.2445
Fax: 732.445.0006

Curriculum Vita

Research Interests:

I am a cultural and political ecologist. My work attempts to link the political economy of access to and control over environmental resources, and ecological change (political ecology), to issues of technology, knowledge, and social power, more typical of research in science and technology studies (STS). I have a strong commitment to advancing both our empirical and our theoretical understanding of nature-society-technology relations. Moreover, I am committed to applying my work to the environmental policymaking process. To date, I have advanced these concerns by examining the transformation of groundwater-based irrigation.

I’ve been examining groundwater-led irrigation in Rajasthan, India since 2002. In this work, I focus on three interrelated processes. First, I show that adaptive social institutions (such as sharing of tubewells) form around the socio-ecological demands, constraints and opportunities set in motion through the adoption of tubewell groundwater lifting technology (Annals of the Association of American Geographers, In Review). This particular work also highlights the ways that social institutions, technology adoption and groundwater and cropping pattern change are recursive processes, feeding into one another in nonlinear and contradictory ways. Secondly, it highlights the tensions between local and state forms of environmental expertise to show the ways that these knowledge rifts form barriers to the groundwater governance process (Geoforum 2008). And third, it illustrates the way that the state, rather than incorporating diverse forms of knowledge and expertise into their governance reforms, instead attempts to undermine local power by producing farmers who become subjects to and willing participants in programs that undermine their livelihoods (Contentious Geographies 2008).

I intend to further these current interests through ongoing research, while also expanding my research into issues of water, equity and governance in South Asia’s urban areas (manuscript in development).

01:450:341: “South Asia: Environment, Development and Society”

01:450:360: “Cultural and Political Ecology”

01:450:405: “Political Geography”

16:450:510: “Water and Social Power”

16:450:510: “Social Power, Institutions and the Environment”

Education:

Ph.D. Geography, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. 2007.

M.A. Geography, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. 2002.

B.A. Geography, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. 1997.

A.A.S. Indian Hills Community College, Ottumwa, IA. 1993.

Students:

Recent Publications:

Birkenholtz, T. (2008). "Contesting Expertise: The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Indian Groundwater Practices." Geoforum 39: 466-482

Birkenholtz, T. (In Press). ‘Environmentality’ in Rajasthan’s Groundwater Sector:  Divergent Environmental Knowledges and Subjectivities. Contentious Geographies: Environment, Meaning, Scale. M. Goodman, M. Boykoff and K. T. Evered eds. Aldershot, Ashgate Press

Roff, R. J., J. Anderson, T. Birkenholtz, et al. (Forthcoming). "What's Just? Afterthoughts on the Summer Institute for the Geographies of Justice 2007." Antipode. 

Birkenholtz, T. (Forthcoming). “Murky Waters: Mediating Local Institutions for Demand Side Solutions in Rajasthani Irrigation” for Institute of Rajasthan Studies conference proceedings, yet to be titled.

Birkenholtz, T. (2007). "Groundwater" in Encyclopedia of Environment and Society, Robbins, P. (ed.), Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage, pages 828-831.

Robbins, P and T. Birkenholtz. (2003). “Turfgrass Revolution: Measuring the Expansion of the American Lawn” Land Use Policy. 20: 181-194.

Robbins, P., A. Polderman, and T. Birkenholtz. (2001). “Lawns and Toxins: an Ecology of the City” Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning. 18(6): 369-380.

Under Review:

Birkenholtz, T. “Irrigated Landscapes, Produced Scarcity, and Adaptive Social Institutions in Rajasthan, India” in revision for The Annals of the Association of American Geographers.