Lake as Body: Gendered and Personified Language by Activists at the Great Salt Lake

The Great Salt Lake is the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere and the largest lake in the United States outside of the Great Lakes region. The lake and its surrounding wetlands support a simple but delicate ecosystem, which requires specific temperatures and salinity levels to remain healthy. Due to climate change and high water use in the Salt Lake Valley, the lake is drying up. This poses significant concerns for the health of Utah’s economy, population, and ecosystems. A sizable activist scene has rallied around efforts to save the lake, and many activists have adopted gendered and personified language to refer to the Great Salt Lake, its ecosystems, and the nonhuman entities it supports. Although there is significant scientific research about the ecological decline of the Great Salt Lake, there is a dearth of social science or humanities research on the subject and no research addressing the origins or significance of the shift towards gendered and personified language. This project seeks to fill this gap. This study will employ a mixed-methods qualitative approach, including photovoice, participatory mapping, and semi-structured interviews, to understand the reasons why activists have adopted this shift in language and how they perceive its contribution towards conservation efforts. This presentation will outline the background of the Great Salt Lake’s water crisis and activist efforts, theoretical ecofeminist frameworks, and the next steps for research.