Dr James Fraser

Research Overview

My research takes a critical approach to questions of sustainable farming, social justice and biodiversity conservation in rural and forested regions of countries of the global periphery and semi periphery.

My most sustained fieldwork engagements are in Brazilian Amazonia, and I have also worked in West Africa (Liberia) and Central America (Nicaragua).

Drawing theory and methods from Geography and Anthropology, this work has developed through two distinct strands:

The first seeks to comprehend the knowledge(s) and social institutions that shape forest and rural peoples' agroecological practices of horticulture and agroforestry.

The second is concerned with understanding and supporting rural and forest peoples’ political struggles for recognition, autonomy, territory, food sovereignty and decolonization.

Current Projects:

I am a Co-I on the project Forest citizenship for disaster resilience: Learning from COVID-19 focusing on the Brazilian Amazon, funded under the Trans-Atlantic Platform Recovery, Renewal and Resilience in a Post-Pandemic World (RRR) call

I hold a CONFAP UK Academies Fellowship Socio-ecological resilience, territory and conflict in Western Pará, Brazilian Amazonia based at the Federal University of Pará, Brazil.

You can watch a film associated with this project entitled The Vaccine (2022)

You can see me give a talk about this project entitled Retaking Indigenous lands: The Sataré-Mawé struggle to reclaim ancestral territory at the conference For Dom, Bruno & the Amazon.

Teaching:

I am convener for:

LEC.322 Environment, Society and Politics in Amazonia

LEC.331 Food and Agriculture in the 21st Century

I also teach the Environmental Geographies block in the Part 1 module LEC.114 Society and Space, and contribute to the masters module LEC.401 Perspectives on Environment and Development.

Location:

Office B538 in LEC 1 / Green Zone