Dr. Anna Bettini

Pronouns: She/Her

Positions

Postdoctoral Associate

Faculty of Arts, Department of History

Contact information

anna.bettini@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Portfolio website

Twitter Account

Location

Office: Social Sciences634

I'm looking for...

Study participants

Looking for participants interested in sharing their stories and views on energy transition and their experiences on solar/wind farms in Southern Alberta.

Background

Educational Background

PhD Anthropology, University of Alberta, 2021

MA Social Anthropology, University of Kent, 2015

BA Anthropology, Central Washington University , 2014

Bsc Primate Behavior and Ecology, Central Washington University, 2014

Biography

I am a postdoctoral research associate in the History department at the University of Calgary. My research interests include the anthropology of energy, environmental history, processes of deindustrialization, and social and environmental justice.

Originally from Italy, I completed my university studies in the U.S. and in the U.K, where I received a double B.A. degree in Anthropology and Primate Behavior & Ecology from Central Washington University and an M.A in Social Anthropology at the University of Kent. In 2021, I successfully defended my Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Alberta, Canada. In my doctoral research titled Voices from a Fractured Landscape: Fracking, Senses of Places, and Risks in Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, I explored the perspectives on hydraulic fracturing in Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand, to understand the changes and the impacts people have experienced around their senses of place and belonging. My ethnographic study unveiled the risks and living conditions experienced by those living in fossil fuel-dependent regions, where new or unconventional extractive techniques occur.

I am officially affiliated with the SSHRC-funded Partnership Project DéPOT: Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time. My current research After Oil & Gas— Stories on Energy Transitions in Alberta, in collaboration with Dr. Petra Dolata, analyzes the educational and training tools available to displaced fossil fuel workers as well as the community members' perceptions and responses to renewable energy development, to delineate the strategies and barriers that may promote or limit a just energy transition.

Research

Areas of Research

Energy Anthropology, Environmental Humanities, Ethnography

Projects

After oil and gas—A fairer transition for workers: A comparative study of Canada and New Zealand

The oil and gas industry is facing transformational change. The 2020 oil market price crash has deepened existing challenges. Various strategies to decarbonize economies and lower CO2 emissions have resulted in job cuts and the displacement of oil and gas professionals. In regions where the oil and gas industry has been the primary source of income, workers have struggled to identify alternatives for their future, maintain their current livelihood, and satisfy their basic needs. A more in-depth analysis of the challenges the oil and gas workforce faces and what educational and professional programs could be made available and implemented to redeploy displaced skilled workers from the sector is required. In my proposed research, I aim to investigate this displacement by listening directly to the workers to learn what they envision for their future.

For my project, I will focus on two central geographic regions: Taranaki, New Zealand, and Alberta, Canada, both areas considered the centers of oil and gas production in their respective countries. In both jurisdictions, the energy sector has become one of the principal sources of employment. Many are the challenges and uncertainties presented to these communities to transition to cleaner and greener forms of energy. By using in-depth interviews and collecting oral histories, I aim to understand the impacts of workers’ displacement while investigating the community members’ perceptions and responses to the energy transition and gain a more in-depth understanding of the future of oil and gas-centred regions. Listening to those directly affected by layoffs, those currently employed in the oil and gas section of the energy sector, their families and their communities will contribute to public policy by adding valuable information and perspectives on related topics of equity, social justice, and energy ethics.

Publications