Research Overview

My research takes a critical approach to questions of sustainable farming, social justice and biodiversity conservation. My empirical focus is currently Brazilian Amazonia where I have worked since 2006. I have also conducted research in Liberia and Nicaragua. Drawing theory and methods from Geography and Anthropology, my 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.

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 recently held 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