Diane E. Austin
About Diane E. Austin
Diane Austin is an applied environmental anthropologist whose work focuses on community dynamics amid large-scale industrial activity and environmental change; alternative technologies and education to increase environmental, social, and community justice; and community-based, collaborative research and outreach. She has more than 25 years of experience managing large interdisciplinary and multiyear projects; developing and implementing collaborative research and outreach approaches; and serving as an advisor to local, state, and tribal governments and consortia in the United States and Mexico. She has developed and maintained long-term, multisectoral and community-based partnerships with Native American communities, U.S. and Mexican border communities, and communities along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. At the University of Arizona, she has coordinated the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) internship program for almost three decades, developed BARA’s post-baccalaureate program, and supported hundreds of students and emerging researchers. Austin was recognized as University Distinguished Outreach Professor in 2008.and Distinguished Director in 2023.
Selected Publications
Rebecca Wey, Ann Marie A. Wolf, Palmira Henriquez, Mario Macías-Ayala, Flor Sandoval, Kamrin Robinson & Diane Austin. 2026. The Importance of the Social During an Era of Digital Research: Recruitment Lessons from a Longitudinal Study in a Low-Income, Limited English Proficiency Population, Practicing Anthropology, DOI: 10.1080/08884552.2026.2640915
Hilton, Amanda, Sydney Pullen, Elizabeth Eklund, and Diane Austin. 2022. Community-University Relations: Community Perspectives on their Interactions with the University of Arizona. Prepared for the University of Arizona Office of Research, Innovation, and Impact and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. July.
Austin, Diane, Julie Luchetta., Victoria Phaneuf, and Jessica Simms. 2022. Social Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Coastal Communities along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. OCS Study. BOEM 2022-021. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region.
Austin, Diane and Victoria Phaneuf. 2020. Place Matters: Tracking Coastal Restoration after the Deepwater Horizon. In Thomas K. Park and James B. Greenberg, editors, Terrestrial Transformations: A Political Ecology Approach to Society and Nature. Rowman & Littlefield.
Austin, Diane. 2018. Doubly Invisible: Women’s Labor in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Offshore Oil and Gas Industry. In Touraj Atabaki, Elisabetta Bini, and Kaveh Ehsani, eds. Working for Oil: Comparative Social Histories of Labor in the Global Oil Industry. Palgrave Macmillan.
Austin, Diane, Lauren Penney, and Tom McGuire. 2017. Ethnography on Trial. Anthropology Now. 9(1).
Austin, Diane. 2014. Guestworkers in the Fabrication and Shipbuilding Industry along the Gulf of Mexico: An Anomaly or a New Source of Labor? In David Griffith, eds. (Mis)managing Migration: Guestworkers’ Experiences with North American Labor Markets. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.
McGuire, Tom, and Diane Austin. 2014. Beyond the Horizon: Oil and Gas Along the Gulf of Mexico. In Sarah Strauss, Stephanie Rupp, and Thomas Love, eds. Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies. Chicago: Left Coast Press.
Austin, Diane and Brenda Drye. 2011. The Water that Can’t Be Stopped: Southern Paiute Perspectives on the Colorado River and the Operations of Glen Canyon Dam. Policy and Society 30(4):285-300.
Austin, Diane. 2010. Confronting Environmental Challenges on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Examining a Long-Term Community-Based Participatory Research Program. Journal of Community Practice 18(2):361-395.
Austin, Diane E. Coastal Exploitation, Land Loss, and Hurricanes: A Recipe for Disaster. 2006. American Anthropologist 108(4): 671-691.
Austin, Diane E. 2004. Partnerships, Not Projects! Improving the Environment Through Collaborative Research and Action. Human Organization 63(4):419-430.
Austin, Diane E. 2003. Community-Based Collaborative Team Ethnography: A Community-University-Agency Partnership. Human Organization. 62(2):143-152.
Courses Taught
ANTH 347 Native Peoples of the Southwest
ANTH 407 Ethnographic Research Methods
ANTH 469 Ethnobotany
ANTH 537 Data Management and Analysis
Areas of Study
Geographic Area of Interest:
U.S.-Mexico border, especially Arizona-Sonora
Tribes and tribal communities in the U.S. southwest, especially northern Arizona and southern Utah
Gulf of Mexico region, especially southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and southeastern Texas
Projects
As an applied anthropologist, I respond to requests for short-term, one-time projects, such as assessments of Native American connections to specific places, a cloth diaper back-up kit project for the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona, and a program serving refugee youth in Tucson, AZ. In addition, I have been fortunate as well to establish and maintain long-term collaborations with Native American tribes and organizations, federal and state agencies and the communities they serve, and community-based organizations.
Research Interests
Human-environment interactions, learning and learning communities, decision making in complex circumstances, collaborative research, university-community relationships, environmental and social justice, and Native American policy and practice.