Ala Costa Adult Transition (ACAT) and Adult Community Training (ACT) Programs’ “neurodivergent leadership” and “Neurodivergent Education Model” (NEM) present a unique moment of opportunity for a neurodivergent and disabled ethnographer. In the findings from a case study of the ACAT/ACT programs, this project analyzes how “intersectional interdependence” is mobilized in transition-making and how “transition-making,” grounded in self-determination skill training, can work as a model for social movement and change. Through the trope of a Carroll-ian “rabbit hole,” this project travels through its Berkeley, CA field site to explore territories where self-determination skills are taught and shared among/between a majority-neurodivergent group of Community-Based Teachers/Instructors (CBTIs) and intergenerational cohorts of Intellectually and/or Developmentally Disabled (I/DD) adults immersed in their IDEA mandated “Transition Program.” Under a disabled, neurodivergent, and autistic (DNA) leadership, ACAT/ACT CBTIs and I/DD students have, for just over a decade, been immersed in the intersectional work of designing interdependent and accessible methods of self-determination training that resist dominant and assimilationist methods of Applied Behavioral Analysis, Normalization (be it behavioral or environmental), and/or Social Role Valorization. In working toward multiple possible futures for neurodivergent communities un-restrained by neurotypical disciplinary methods of compliance-making, the ACAT/ACT programs offer trauma-informed self-determination skill training for I/DD adults attempting to do the work of deinstitutionalization begun by past generations of neurodivergent leaders that is transition-making.

According to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, climate change will exacerbate current climate and non-climate stressors on agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa. This will adversely impact food security and the wellbeing of communities. Small-scale farmers grow more than 90 percent of the food produced in the region and many households depend on productive local growing conditions to support for their families. A better understanding of recent and near future climate constraints is important for identifying future food security risks and locally-appropriate adaptation strategies.

This dissertation research examines impacts of weather and climate on vegetation productivity in geographically diverse areas of east Africa and the semi-arid Sahel. The focus of this research is how surface energy and water budgets respond to variations in rainfall and temperature. It asks the following questions: Where will warmer temperature pose a hazard to rainfed agriculture in the Sahel in the next 20 years? What environment and weather conditions led to above average surface temperature during the recent decade in east Africa? How have declines in rainfall since the 1980s impacted vegetation productivity and hydrology in Tanzania? The research incorporates a variety of earth observation data, including historical records from in situ, model-derived, and satellite-observed sources and projections from global climate models. A major contribution is the identification of specific areas, mainly in semi-arid climate zones, where increases in temperature and decreases to rainfall have large negative impacts on vegetation productivity. The research also presents new methods for evaluating land-atmosphere interactions in the context of hazards to vegetation.