Many oil pumps at work in the Bakken Shale

Many oil pumps at work in the Bakken Shale.

This collaborative project came about as the participating researchers noticed more and more "fatigue" symptoms in the rural communities they were studying. In addition to community members mentioning how many different groups of students, researchers, and members of the media requested information from them, the researchers also started to hear about multiple instances in which the communities never heard results back from those researchers they had helped. The project leaders also started to notice unexpected benefits that could be provided to communities in exchange for the help the communities gave researchers - making communities more empowered and making the relationship more reciprocal.

How the Research Fatigue Project Started

 

Dr. Julia Haggerty and Ph.D. researcher Kristin Smith discuss the origins of this research project. (Video length: 3:50. Click the CC button at the bottom of the video frame to see captioning)