Doughty Heads Back to Rwanda

Doughty's research furthered in Rwanda this fall, 2016

Professor Doughty will spend fall semester 2016 conducting research in Rwanda, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Rwanda and the Lake Kivu Monitoring Program. Over the past decade, while rebuilding the country in the wake of the 1994 genocide, the Rwandan government has developed contracts with two U.S. companies to build industrial-scale gas-fueled power projects to extract methane from Lake Kivu. The methane extraction project has two stated aims: first, to reduce dangerous levels of unstable gasses dissolved in the lake and thus prevent it from an unpredictable, and deadly, explosion; and second, to provide much-needed power to fuel development for the region and country. Doughty’s work will examine how people living alongside the lake experience the transformations brought about by the gas extraction project. This research will thus examine how the cultural politics of energy, risk of natural disaster, and reconciliation are intertwined within post-conflict contexts. This research is funded by grants from the Wenner Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation.