Eugénie Clément

Visiting Graduate Researcher
eugenie.clement1@gmail.com
Keywords: Latin America

I started my PhD in social anthropology at EHESS in October 2019. My research focuses on frictions, mobilizations and ontologies within the ongoing environmental struggles among the Navajo (Diné). My ethnography is done with families of farmers, as well as collectives. I am interested both in relationships between individuals and in exchanges within politicized groups who called themselves water protector. Water is a decisive issue for these Navajo farmers. However, they do not have access to drinking water and must, daily, put in place strategies to remedy it. The southwest of the United States is a semi-arid region, where the battle for water is raging. It is played between individuals and collectives (like the Green team) who feel helpless in the face of the power of cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix or Las Vegas. This reflects a general feeling on the Navajo nation: that of being wronged, set aside for the benefit of the white communities in these cities which, according to them, have real political power. In these conditions of slow violence (Rob Nixon, 2011), Navajo farmers consider themselves victims of environmental racism.
In parallel with my research, I am coordinator for the California pole of the Institute of the Americas. In the Latin American Institute, I will continue the work started by my predecessors Andrew Meyer and Amandine De Bruyker. For this, I wish to set up study days, conferences and participate actively in the life of the Institute. I also hope to forge collaborations with the departments of anthropology and Native American Studies. One of my goals for the next three years is to allow one of the LAI members to attend the EHESS in Paris, as well as making the Institut des Amériques more visible on the UCLA campus.