RIS+Project+Definition

Working Title: Women and natural healing in the Permaculture community

 * Key Words:** Permaculture, ecofeminism, alternative medicine, women, nature, activism, sustainable design

Data Sets?
There are a lot of permaculture related articles at this blog: [], and I can use the references that they give as well. These are about permaculture, not necessarily the relationship between permaculture, ecofeminism, and alternative medicine. I am having trouble finding literatures that connect all three parts of my research, but many about each. I will have to work to connect them myself. I also have found a couple books at the library that may be of interest, and I plan to search there more soon. One article I read, //Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-Placing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism//, is a critique of ecofeminism, and has more references within the text than I will have time to look into, so it is a valuable source of information relating to women and the environment. I'm still searcing for some good datasets about alternative medicine and its relationship to ecology.

Social Theoretical Questions
Can people have a positive effect on the environment? What would a positive effect be? Is any effect positive? Do certain permaculture practices enforce gender roles? Or do they engender balance? Are conventional medicines worse for the environment than alternative, "natural" medicines?

Research Questions
What is the relationship between permaculture, feminism, and alternative medicine? Do women and men have different approaches to ecology, or different reasons for caring? What are the parallels between permaculture and alternative medicine?

Why Now?
The world is rapidly becoming aware of the effects of climate change, and many people want to make a difference to preserve a human-habitable planet. This is closely intertwined with natural medicine, not only because a healthy earth is needed to grow the plants for natural medicine, but also because there are negative effects on the environment from the drugs. Gender is part of the natural balance of life, and both men and women have been pushed into traditional gender roles, including in the field of ecology and agriculture.

How Prepared?
I feel like the part I am least prepared for is doing research! I haven't done a research paper since high school, so I need to review my technique and organization skills. In terms of being familiar with the topic, I have a little knowledge about each, but high interest in all three. I learned about Permaculture from the Sustainability Problems and Solutions class last semester, and learned a little about feminism in class with Linda Layne sophomore year. I have very little knowledge about natural medicine, but I feel like it could almost be a mirror for permaculture within the human body: naturally sustaining life.

Bias?
I think that because I am female, I might have a feminist bias, but I also been part of a masculine-dominated field of study since high school, so it is possible I have become accustomed to some things that perhaps women in other fields would find surprising. I do not have much experience in agriculture as I grew up in a city, but as I was growing up my mother helped install a hydroponic lab in my grade school, and I was often brought to community gardens and NY Parks Green Thumb events where I learned to recycle paper into new paper, planted seeds in old milk containers, etc., so I have learned from a young age to view sustainability as important. In addition, my mother often gave me herbal remedies as well as conventional medicines, so I am open minded to both, although I have become aware of the negative impacts of prescription medicine and often try to use the herbal or natural remedies first when I get sick.

Fields of Work?
Designer, agricultural landscaper, healer, teacher,

Funders
The permaculture research institute, the permaculture association, I nstitute for Research on Women and Gender, The American Association of University Women, he Avon foundation for women, The National Patient Safety Foundation