Research Overview

For over twenty-five years, my research has examined the lives and struggles of peasant and indigenous peoples in the postcolonial world, with a particular focus on the Brazilian Amazon, where I have worked since 2006. I've also conducted research in Liberia and Nicaragua. Bridging Geography and Anthropology, my work unfolds through two strands.

The first strand examines what can be understood as the “ancestral sustainability” of knowledge systems and social institutions that guide agroecological practices —like horticulture and agroforestry—among forest and rural peoples. This term captures the way that these systems are agrobiodiverse, extensive and long-term, yet climate resilient and lower risk as opposed to the productivist, intensive and immediate, yet risky and vulnerable monocultures of industrial agriculture.

The second strand focuses on the urgent political movements of these peoples. I study—and actively support—their struggles for recognition, autonomy, land rights, food sovereignty, and decolonization. My research is not just about understanding these challenges; it’s about contributing to movements for rights, justice and self-determination.

My most recent work has brought these two strands together to address questions pertaining to the Anthropocene (or Capitalocene, or Plantationocene). In conceptualising the underlying relationships to nature in these three -cenes, I have recently advocated for taking African and Amazonian worldviews seriously, for example.

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