Natasha Riccio

2022 Graduate Student Fellow

Natasha Chantel Riccio is a PhD student at the UArizona Arid Lands Resource Sciences department. Natasha's research is at the nexus of ethnobotany, ecology, genetics, and agriculture, incorporating multiple perspectives to build a larger whole. In particular, Natasha's research explores climate-resilient agricultural models through a transdisciplinary approach to studying human-plant relationships grounded in cultural Knowledge. Natasha is especially interested in Agave murpheyi, a species of agave domesticated by the Hohokam and farmed throughout the Sonoran Desert by Indigenous peoples. Natasha has begun conversations with collaborators from the San Xavier District, the San Xavier Coop Farm, and the Akimel O'odham community to develop a network of sanctuaries for these bio-culturally significant plants.