I want to build my familiarity with a wide variety of different cases (in the room right now, we have people with expertise on: Austin, Louisiana, London, Orange County/Santa Ana, La Puente, and Delhi, among others) and my ability to think about how these cases can give insight on the places I am interested in.
I hope to be supported in thinking methodologically about experimental qualitative research methods and substantively about environmental injustice. This support is, on some level, academic–I am learning from both the more experienced researchers in the group and from the perspectives of newcomers, and it is an opportunity for me to share my work and get feedback. It is also emotional–this lab is the community of people (and friends!) that I had hoped I would get from my department but did not. It’s also a way for me to build relationships with other people and organizations, both within and outside UCI–I think it’s much easier to come into a school as a research group that has staying power than as an individual researcher.