Doctoral Dissertation Research: Factors Influencing Disproportionality in Land Dispossession

This doctoral dissertation research project contributes to understandings of the relationship between title, property, and land dispossession in anthropological science and sociolegal studies. The research centers on the dynamic interplay between bureaucratic institutions, legal advocates, and landowners in defining and redefining the legal boundaries of property ownership.

Land dispossession is contributing significantly to vast economic inequity and instability, particularly for marginalized landowners. The project aims to expand understandings of how socioeconomic inequalities and property are intertwined with socio-political and economic mobility. In addition to training a graduate student in scientific data collection and analysis, this research sheds light on contemporary legal and political challenges landowners face in the United States and broadens studies on the phenomena of land grabbing in diverse social contexts. Findings and data from this project are being disseminated to academic and non-academic audiences.

The research questions are: (1) What are the categories of property ownership? (2) Do specific forms of property ownership create an increased risk of dispossession for marginalized landowners? (3) In what ways are state and local bureaucratic systems intertwined with local private and public infrastructure projects that may facilitate land loss (4) What strategies do vulnerable landowners engage in to avoid dispossession and reclaim lands lost to dispossession? and (5) How do land and property ownership factor into understandings of citizenship and belonging? The project specifically explores the layers of complexity surrounding land dispossession through a range of ethnographic and sociolegal research methods, including participant observation, legal archival searches of land deeds, sociohistorical analyses of legal terminology, and the tracking of legal disputes.

The project contributes to broader discussions on citizenship, rights, and belonging. Examining legal classifications may reveal contributing factors that disproportionately contribute to an increase in land loss for some landowners.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.