Science AMA Series: Hi Reddit, I’m Jeremy Spoon, an associate professor of anthropology at Portland State University. I utilize collaborative methodologies to understand how rural mountain communities recover from natural disasters using the catastrophic 2015 Nepal earthquakes as an example. AMA!

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Natural hazards, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, are difficult to predict and control. They can also have devastating impacts on life and property. These natural hazards become natural disasters depending on how social and ecological systems experience them. The same hazard can have drastically different outcomes in alternate contexts. Factors such as social and economic inequality, weak government response, and poorly planned and constructed infrastructure can force a hazard to shift to a disaster.

Ethnographic and survey research after natural disasters can provide valuable insights on what factors facilitate or hinder recovery and how to build on local resilience. Identified factors could then be used preemptively in disaster preparedness to inform local planning and vulnerability analyses in other locations; these factors may also assist in facilitating disaster response in comparable contexts, making interventions more appropriate and sustainable in the long-term.

In my research group, we are currently developing a linked quantitative and qualitative model that predicts adaptive capacity to natural disasters (Drawing Lessons from a Catastrophe). I’m honored to talk with you about my applied anthropological research and share the stories of these earthquake survivors. Please ask me anything!

I will be back at 4 pm ET to answer your questions, ask me anything!

">Science AMA Series: Hi Reddit, I’m Jeremy Spoon, an associate professor of anthropology at Portland State University. I utilize collaborative methodologies to understand how rural mountain communities recover from natural disasters using the catastrophic 2015 Nepal earthquakes as an example. AMA!