Cydney K. Seigerman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Integrative Conservation & Anthropology program at the University of Georgia (UGA), where they work with Dr. Don Nelson and is a member of the Human Environmental Change Lab (HECL). Cydney is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a research scholar at the Cearense Meteorological and Water Resources Foundation (Funceme) in Ceará, Brazil.
As a scholartist*, Cydney integrates methods across the critical social sciences, the natural sciences, and performance/theatre to examine the relationships between people, technologies, and the environment. They are currently conducting their dissertation fieldwork in Ceará, northeast Brazil on the lived experience of water insecurity and how household and individual water insecurities are recursively shaped by interrelated sociopolitical, hydrological, and technological processes. Cydney’s ethnographic research with communities in the semi-arid sertão (hinterlands) will be complemented by the quantitative assessment of household water insecurity using a survey instrument based on recent work by HWISE members Dr. Wendy Jepson and Dr. Paula Tomaz. Cydney will integrate the data from these social science approaches with hydrological fieldwork, including the measurement of evapotranspiration rates of local intermittent streams, and collaborative performance work with the theatre group Pavihlão da Magnólia.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is fundamental to Cydney’s research and artistic work. At UGA, Cydney co-developed the workshop series Exploring Research as Craft with multi-media artist Alden DiCamillo, co-chaired the 2020 Integrative Conservation Conference with Dr. Rhianna Hohbein, and collaborated with The Georgia Incarceration Performance Project (2019–2020) as a co-deviser. They are also a contributing author of Chapter 4 of the Sixth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report by Working Group II, which examines water-related impacts of, adaptation to, and vulnerability to climate change. Recently, Cydney worked with Dr. Nelson, HECL members, and collaborators at the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) through the Network for Engineering with Nature (N-EWN) to develop an equity framework for use in water resources infrastructure projects and management.
*The term scholartist was coined by the interdisciplinary scholar/artist Joseph Shahadi.
Peer-reviewed publications
Lemos, M. C., Puga, B. P., Formiga-Johnsson, R. M., and Seigerman, C. K. 2020. Building on adaptive capacity to extreme events in Brazil: water reform, participation, and climate information across four river basins. Regional Environmental Change 20 (2):53.
Seigerman, C. K. and DiCamillo, A. 2019. Exploring Research as Craft: A Workshop Series to Promote Cross-Discipline Communication by Examining Processes of Creating. Ground Works. a2ru edition. [online] https://a2ru2019.groundworks.io/projects/8
Seigerman, C. K., Micyus, T. M., Neufeldt, S. R., and Sanford, M. S. 2013. Palladium-Catalyzed C–H Arylation Using Aryltrifluoroborates in Conjunction with a Mn(III) Oxidant Under Mild Conditions. Tetrahedron.69: 5580-5587.Neufeldt, S. R., Seigerman, C. K., and Sanford, M. S. 2013. Mild Palladium-Catalyzed C–H Alkylation Using Potassium Alkyltrifluoroborates in Combination with MnF3. Org. Lett.15: 2302-2305.
Book chapters
Seigerman, C. K., Basilio, R. L. P., and Nelson, D. R. 2021. Secas entrelaçadas: uma abordagem integrativa para explorar a sobreposição parcial e as divisões volúveis entre definições, experiências e memórias da seca no Ceará, Brasil. In A. L. Carvalho da Rocha e C. Eckert (Eds.) Tempo e memória ambiental: etnografia da duração das paisagens citadinas. (pp. 18 – 41). Brasília (Brazil): Associação Brasileira de Antropologia. DOI: 10.48006/978-65-5973-032-2-1
Seigerman, C. and Nelson, D. 2019. Produção e uso do conhecimento científico em decisões de alocação de água nas bacias metropolitanas do Jaguaribe e Fortaleza, Ceará. In F. A. de Sousa Filho et al. (Ed.), ADAPTA: Gestão adaptativa do risco climático de seca. (pp. 541 – 554). Fortaleza, Ceará (Brazil): Expressão Gráfica e Editora.
Other publications
Mukherji, A., Berman, H. M., Casparina Brackel, A. K., Caretta, M. A., Dowler, C., Fanghella, V., Gomes, S. L., Gray, B. J., Hegde, G., Lautze, J., Mahanti, A., Mehar, M., Mills-Novoa, M., Mukhopadhyay, S., NR, L., Panday, P. K., Parajuli, J., Priya, R., Reddy, EB U. B., Rittelmeyer, R., Seigerman, C. K., Shah, R., Shrestha, G., Singh Sidhu, B., Singh, A., Srinivasan, J., Ternes, B., Thompson, W. R. D., Vora, S. K., Yashoda, Y. 2021. Effectiveness of Water adaptation responses in reducing climate related risks: A meta review. Final report number: FR2021-011. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). https://www.aciar.gov.au/publication/technical-publications/effectiveness-water-adaptation-responses-reducing-climate-related-risks-meta-review
Seigerman, C. K. 2020. “Fluid Inequities: The Dynamics of Water Relations and Water Insecurities in Ceará, Northeast Brazil.” Integrative Conservation (ICON) Program Research Brief. http://icon.uga.edu/research/research-briefs/
Seigerman, C. K. 2018. Lessons From Embracing the Unknown: Proposing and Conducting Pre-dissertation Research. Applied Biodiversity Science Perspectives Series. Ed. Kenny Wallen.