Speakers
Stephen Aldrich
Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, Indiana State University
Dr. Stephen Aldrich is a broadly-trained Human-Environment Geographer and an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Systems at Indiana State University. His research interests encompass conflict and land change, spatial methods, statistics, and social drivers of environmental change, with a focus on Latin American environments in the Brazilian Amazon.
Edward R. Carr
International Development, Community, and Environment Department, Clark University
Dr. Edward Carr is a tenured professor in the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark University, and director of the Humanitarian Response and Development Lab (HURDL). His work is centered in rural sub-Saharan Africa on issues of livelihoods, development, adaptation to global change, and resilience. His research has led to publications and reports on issues of development, adaptation to climate change, and the changing global environment.
Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete
CIMSUR, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
With an interdisciplinary background, Dr. Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete's work focuses on how new crops, technologies and development models in agriculture are shaped by and transform power relations at rural level, and with which consequences for peasant families and their environment (rainforests, mangroves). Keywords of his research include state, agrarian change, peasants, nature and, increasingly, space. Currently, Dr. Castellanos-Navarrete's work draws upon and aims to contribute to agrarian studies and political ecology, with a particular focus on the oil palm expansion in Mexico and Latin America.
Rachael Garrett
Department of Humanities, Social, and Political Sciences, ETH Zurich
Dr. Rachael Garrett is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at ETH Zurich in the Deptartment of Humanities, Social, and Political Sciences and the Department of Environmental Systems Science. She has interdisciplinary training in economics, geography, history, systems thinking, environmental science, and policy analysis and uses a wide range of research methods and designs, including statistical models and case studies. With work centered largely in the Brazilian Amazon, Dr. Garrett's current projects examine themes of conservation policy, sustainable development, and the re-integration of crop and livestock systems.
David Lansing
Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Dr. David Lansing is an Associate Professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County with research interests in the intersection of conservation policy and rural livelihoods. Drawing on political ecology, science and technology studies (STS), and theories of agrarian change Dr. Lansing seeks to explain how conservation policy is formed and implemented, and the effects it has on land use and the livelihoods of small farmers. Most of his empirical work examines “market based” conservation policies such as carbon offsets and ecosystem service payments using a variety of methods including quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, archival work, textual analysis, remote sensing, GIS, and ethnography.
Kendra McSweeney
Department of Geography, Ohio State University
Dr. Kendra McSweeney is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Ohio State University. Her primary interest is in human-environment interactions, with focus on issues in cultural and political ecology, conservation and development, resilience, demography, and land use/cover change. Current projects include tracing the socioecological impacts of drug trafficking through Central America, and studying the nature and implications of demographic change among Latin America's indigenous populations.
Kevon Rhiney
Department of Geography, Rutgers University
Dr. Kevon Rhiney is an Associate Professor and broadly trained human geographer at Rutgers University, with research interests across a wide range of subjects, including rural agrarian change, sustainable tourism development, environmental justice, and global change. In addition, he routinely engages with discourses and debates rooted in socio-spatial theory and the geo-humanities. His current research is situated at the nexus of critical development studies, political ecology, science and technology studies and postcolonial thought to explore the development and justice implications of global change for coupled human and natural systems in the Caribbean, including the ability of these systems to withstand or adjust to these changes in an ever-changing, interconnected and increasingly complex world.
Rinku Roy Chowdhury
Department of Geography, Clark University
As an Associate Professor at Clark University, Dr. Rinku Roy Chowdhury's research focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forest-agricultural mosaics (Mexico), urbanizing ecosystems (multiple sites in the U.S.), and coastal mangrove vulnerability to anthropogenic and climate change (the Americas and South Asia). She is particularly interested in linking theoretical, methodological and field-based approaches from the social and ecological sciences to understand smallholder land and agribiodiversity management, how institutional structures and local agency interact to shape landscapes, and the evolution of adaptive strategies in the face of climate and political-economic change.
Laura Schneider
Department of Geography, Rutgers University
Dr. Laura Schneider is a biogeographer specializing in land change science as an Associate Professor at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on understanding changes in tropical landscapes using a socio-ecological systems approach, with special interests in measuring forest responses following environmental disturbances, monitoring and modeling tropical deforestation and re-growth, and mapping forest dynamics. Her research shows how tropical secondary forests are resilient to disturbances, and how rural landscapes are shaped by land management practices occurring under particular ecological contexts. It also demonstrates the importance of methods linking field data to regional characterizations using remotely sensed data in assessing ecosystem services.
Ximena Rueda
School of Management, Universidad de Los Andes
Dr. Ximena Rueda is Associate Professor at the School of Management at Universidad de Los Andes with an interest in analyzing the role of private-driven instruments for sustainability. She is interested in researching the impacts of globalization on local ecosystems and rural communities, the relationship between global value chains and land use, and the design and implementation of private-driven mechanisms to advance sustainability in agricultural chains. Additionally, Dr. Rueda explores themes of global food systems, telecoupling of socio-ecological systems, and adaptation to climate change.
Catherine M. Tucker
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida
Dr. Catherine M. Tucker is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. Her research explores human-environment interactions through a transdisciplinary approach, encompassing environmental and economic anthropology, political ecology, institutional analysis, and participatory approaches. Dr. Tucker's work has a focus on the Latin American experience, including community-based forest and water management, coffee production and value chains, interactions between people and protected areas, governance of common-pool resources, adaptation to climate change, sustainability, globalization, and belief systems.
Department of Earth and Environmental Systems, Indiana State University
Dr. Stephen Aldrich is a broadly-trained Human-Environment Geographer and an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Systems at Indiana State University. His research interests encompass conflict and land change, spatial methods, statistics, and social drivers of environmental change, with a focus on Latin American environments in the Brazilian Amazon.
Edward R. Carr
International Development, Community, and Environment Department, Clark University
Dr. Edward Carr is a tenured professor in the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark University, and director of the Humanitarian Response and Development Lab (HURDL). His work is centered in rural sub-Saharan Africa on issues of livelihoods, development, adaptation to global change, and resilience. His research has led to publications and reports on issues of development, adaptation to climate change, and the changing global environment.
Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete
CIMSUR, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
With an interdisciplinary background, Dr. Antonio Castellanos-Navarrete's work focuses on how new crops, technologies and development models in agriculture are shaped by and transform power relations at rural level, and with which consequences for peasant families and their environment (rainforests, mangroves). Keywords of his research include state, agrarian change, peasants, nature and, increasingly, space. Currently, Dr. Castellanos-Navarrete's work draws upon and aims to contribute to agrarian studies and political ecology, with a particular focus on the oil palm expansion in Mexico and Latin America.
Rachael Garrett
Department of Humanities, Social, and Political Sciences, ETH Zurich
Dr. Rachael Garrett is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy at ETH Zurich in the Deptartment of Humanities, Social, and Political Sciences and the Department of Environmental Systems Science. She has interdisciplinary training in economics, geography, history, systems thinking, environmental science, and policy analysis and uses a wide range of research methods and designs, including statistical models and case studies. With work centered largely in the Brazilian Amazon, Dr. Garrett's current projects examine themes of conservation policy, sustainable development, and the re-integration of crop and livestock systems.
David Lansing
Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Dr. David Lansing is an Associate Professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County with research interests in the intersection of conservation policy and rural livelihoods. Drawing on political ecology, science and technology studies (STS), and theories of agrarian change Dr. Lansing seeks to explain how conservation policy is formed and implemented, and the effects it has on land use and the livelihoods of small farmers. Most of his empirical work examines “market based” conservation policies such as carbon offsets and ecosystem service payments using a variety of methods including quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, archival work, textual analysis, remote sensing, GIS, and ethnography.
Kendra McSweeney
Department of Geography, Ohio State University
Dr. Kendra McSweeney is a Professor in the Department of Geography at Ohio State University. Her primary interest is in human-environment interactions, with focus on issues in cultural and political ecology, conservation and development, resilience, demography, and land use/cover change. Current projects include tracing the socioecological impacts of drug trafficking through Central America, and studying the nature and implications of demographic change among Latin America's indigenous populations.
Kevon Rhiney
Department of Geography, Rutgers University
Dr. Kevon Rhiney is an Associate Professor and broadly trained human geographer at Rutgers University, with research interests across a wide range of subjects, including rural agrarian change, sustainable tourism development, environmental justice, and global change. In addition, he routinely engages with discourses and debates rooted in socio-spatial theory and the geo-humanities. His current research is situated at the nexus of critical development studies, political ecology, science and technology studies and postcolonial thought to explore the development and justice implications of global change for coupled human and natural systems in the Caribbean, including the ability of these systems to withstand or adjust to these changes in an ever-changing, interconnected and increasingly complex world.
Rinku Roy Chowdhury
Department of Geography, Clark University
As an Associate Professor at Clark University, Dr. Rinku Roy Chowdhury's research focuses on the institutional, ecological and spatial diversity of human-environment interactions in forest-agricultural mosaics (Mexico), urbanizing ecosystems (multiple sites in the U.S.), and coastal mangrove vulnerability to anthropogenic and climate change (the Americas and South Asia). She is particularly interested in linking theoretical, methodological and field-based approaches from the social and ecological sciences to understand smallholder land and agribiodiversity management, how institutional structures and local agency interact to shape landscapes, and the evolution of adaptive strategies in the face of climate and political-economic change.
Laura Schneider
Department of Geography, Rutgers University
Dr. Laura Schneider is a biogeographer specializing in land change science as an Associate Professor at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on understanding changes in tropical landscapes using a socio-ecological systems approach, with special interests in measuring forest responses following environmental disturbances, monitoring and modeling tropical deforestation and re-growth, and mapping forest dynamics. Her research shows how tropical secondary forests are resilient to disturbances, and how rural landscapes are shaped by land management practices occurring under particular ecological contexts. It also demonstrates the importance of methods linking field data to regional characterizations using remotely sensed data in assessing ecosystem services.
Ximena Rueda
School of Management, Universidad de Los Andes
Dr. Ximena Rueda is Associate Professor at the School of Management at Universidad de Los Andes with an interest in analyzing the role of private-driven instruments for sustainability. She is interested in researching the impacts of globalization on local ecosystems and rural communities, the relationship between global value chains and land use, and the design and implementation of private-driven mechanisms to advance sustainability in agricultural chains. Additionally, Dr. Rueda explores themes of global food systems, telecoupling of socio-ecological systems, and adaptation to climate change.
Catherine M. Tucker
Department of Anthropology, University of Florida
Dr. Catherine M. Tucker is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. Her research explores human-environment interactions through a transdisciplinary approach, encompassing environmental and economic anthropology, political ecology, institutional analysis, and participatory approaches. Dr. Tucker's work has a focus on the Latin American experience, including community-based forest and water management, coffee production and value chains, interactions between people and protected areas, governance of common-pool resources, adaptation to climate change, sustainability, globalization, and belief systems.