Lake as Body: Ecofeminism and Animacy at the Great Salt Lake

Author

• Shae BarberFollow

Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Name

Environmental Studies

Other Degree Name/Area of Focus

Graduate Certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Department or School/College

Forestry

Committee Chair

Margiana Petersen-Rockney

Commitee Members

Margiana Petersen-Rockney, Megan Cullinan, Louise Economides

Keywords

ecofeminism, animacy, multispecies justice, Great Salt Lake, climate change, environmental ethics

Subject Categories

Environmental Studies | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Human Geography | Nature and Society Relations | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Other Geography

Abstract

Water shapes cultural, social, and ecological systems. Yet, dominant economic, political, and academic frameworks often treat water as a backdrop or passive resource, ignoring it as an active participant in meaning-making and relationship-building. Viewing water as “nonliving” obscures how it participates in and co-creates relationships, limiting understanding about impacts of and responses to climate change and environmental degradation.

This thesis takes a mixed-methods and participatory approach including semi-structured interview, photovoice, and participatory mapping to examine relational practices between environmental advocates and the Great Salt Lake, a desiccating saline lake in Utah, U.S. As the lake continues to decline, dominant Western frameworks often position it as an extractive resource or a site of management, obscuring alternative ways of relating to the lake. However, some environmental advocates push back on this framework, instead conceptualizing the lake as a living, relational, and agentive entity through thought, language, and practice.

This research identifies widespread discourse about the animacy and agency of the Great Salt Lake in environmental advocate communities. Specifically, environmental advocates use several linguistic and conceptual strategies to construct the lake as animate including gendering or feminization of the lake, conceptualizing the lake as a living entity, and including the lake as an agentive body that shapes environmental action. These framings challenge anthropocentric assumptions while maintaining distinctions between human and nonhuman life. I argue that animate conceptions of the lake are not merely descriptive but constitute how relationships with the lake are imagined and enacted, in turn informing ethical responsibilities and responses to ecological change.

Recommended Citation

Barber, Shae, "Lake as Body: Ecofeminism and Animacy at the Great Salt Lake" (2026). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12673.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12673