Katherine (Rin) Ball

PhD Candidate, Implementor, Marine Enthusiast

About

Katherine is a PhD student in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology program at Arizona State University. Her work focuses on pathways for public participation in ocean governance. She has previously created tools for participation in marine debris research and collaboratively designed tools about helium extraction in Arizona. She now focuses on the management and imagining futures of Alaska's oceans. The focus of her work is on the day-to-day activities of the federal government and she plans to complete a case study on how oceans become different in Arctic governance for her dissertation.Rin is an ORISE Science Policy Fellow Department of Energy's Wind Energy Technologies Office building on work she started as a 2021 Knauss Sea Grant Marine Policy Fellow. She works on WETO's portfolio of social science primarily related to offshore wind development in the United States.When not working, Rin enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons and exploring the environment.Masters of Science and Technology Policy, Arizona State University
B.S. Physical and Technological Oceanography, University of Washington

Research

Katherine's research sits at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies and Human Geography to explore the ways extraction and innovation are defined and utilized for ocean management interests. She explores relationships between tangible geographies, residents, and governance from a distance. To do so she works within feminist thought and more-than-human ontologies.She is a member of the Borderlands STS Lab at ASU.

Current Work:
Rin is currently studying how the U.S. federal government manages domestic oceans with particular focus on Alaska and Arctic relations. She has explored the rhetorics about subsistence and community presented by stakeholders on their websites to understand how identities are bounded and defined. She plans to study the contestation of Pebble Mine in relation to its environmental impact statement and the imagined impacts of mine byproducts for her dissertation.

Past Projects:
One of Rin's passions is co-developing tools to empower publics to engage with complex environmental issues, both their science and governance. Past projects include designing sensors for community marine debris research and games utilizing imagined future narratives.
Learn more about her Master's thesis, Helium Futures here (2019)
Learn more about Geodesic Radio here (2019)