Current research

My current project is a study of the political economy of environmental conservation. Specifically, I explore and compare how the “environment” and environmental issues open, and circumscribe, new spaces for the expression of social, cultural and livelihood concerns among “marginalized communities” (indigenous, black, women, peasants, etc). This project involves two elements: First, to reconceptualize and theorize human-nature relations by drawing on political-economic and feminist approaches in a postcolonial frame. Second, to conduct archival research and ethnographic fieldwork of environmental conservation policies in India and Colombia (and other Latin American locations when possible). I am developing part of this research as part of a larger collaborative project on social movements and cultural-political transformations in the 21st century. For more about that project go to http://www.umass.edu/civsoc/Welcome.html