Caroline Gottschalk

Position title: Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, English

Email: cdruschke@wisc.edu

Research Summary

Building from my academic training in rhetorical studies, aquatic ecology, and community engagement, I work on community-identified problems related to flooding, dam removal, river restoration, and aquatic management. I tend to mix methodologies from across fields--from oral histories, interviews, and archival research, to cross-sectional surveys, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, and fish population studies--to explore river management questions without clear answers. My past work has focused on dam removal, fish passage, and coastal restoration in New England, and community-driven flood response and trout management in Wisconsin's Driftless Area. I'm currently working with Tribal partners in West Michigan on a proposed dam removal that would support 1836 Treaty-protected rights to hunt, fish, and gather, and 2007 Inland Consent Decree-affirmed rights to practice restoration in the Muskegon River Watershed. I'm intellectually curious, disciplinarily fluid, and committed to working in good relation.

Website