2000-2004 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY B.A. (College Scholar/Anthropology)
Magna Cum Laude

Academic Positions Held:

Spring 2011 Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Anthropology (Anth 1102), Dr. Jared Wood, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia.

Fall 2010 Teaching Assistant, Senior Capstone Seminar (Anth 4911) and Introduction to Latin America (Lacs 1000), Dr. Sergio Quesada, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia.

Spring 2009 Instructor. Anth 3200, How the World (Really) Works: The Anthropology of Globalization and Consumption. Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. (enrollment 37)

Fall 2007-Fall 2008 Research Assistant, Mekong Delta, Vietnam, Jessie K. Fly (University of Georgia), Principal Investigator

Summer 2007 Researcher, Advancing Conservation in a Social Context: Working in a World of Trade-offs, MacArthur Foundation and Center for Integrative Conservation Research, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Spring 2006-Fall 2007 Anthropology Tutor. Department of Athletics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Spring 2007 Teaching Assistant, African Ethnography (Anth/Afst 4461), Dr. Bram Tucker, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Fall 2006 Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Anth 4050). Dr. Peter Brosius, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

2004-2006 Information Coordinator/Website Manager, Conservation & Community Lab, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Summer-Fall 2001 Research Assistant, Cultural Survival, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Summer 2001 Intern/Research Assistant, Guandera and Jatun Sacha Biological Stations, Fundación Jatun Sacha, Ecuador

Spring 2000 Intern, Collections Department, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Publications:
2007 Locating Trade-offs in Conservation: Looking Back Over Three Decades of Changes in Conservation Practice and Decision Making. Working Paper. Advancing Conservation in a Social Context, MacArthur Foundation and University of Georgia.

2006 Moving People, Moving Boundaries: The Socio-Economic Effects of Protectionist Conservation, Involuntary, Resettlement and Tenure Insecurity on the Edge of Mt. Elgon National Park, Uganda. Agroforestry in Landscape Mosaics Working Paper Series. World Agroforestry Centre, Tropical Resources Institute of Yale University, and The University of Georgia. Reprinted in 2007 by African Highlands Initiative, Working Paper Series.

2006 (book review) Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics and Culture. Monique Borgerhoff Mulder and Peter Coppolillo. Ecological and Environmental Anthropology. 2(1):34-5.

Chaired Panels:
2011 “Urban Food Systems: Culture and Security,” Society for Applied Anthropology, March 29th-April 3rd, 2011.

2009. Double panel: “Conservation Conflicts and the Politics of Identity.” Society for Applied Anthropology, March 17th-21st, 2009, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

2007 “Social Responses to Insecure Livelihoods in a Zambian Frontier: Findings from the 2006 NSF Ethnographic Methods Field School.” Co-chaired with Nicholas Sitko, University of Colorado. Society for Applied Anthropology, March 27- April 1, 2007. Tampa, Florida.

Conference Presentations:
2011 “Protectionism and the Production of Conflict and Livelihood Vulnerability on the Edge of Mount Elgon National Park, Uganda.” Aberdeen Center for Environmental Sustainability 2011: Conservation Conflicts. Aberdeen, Scotland. August 22nd-24th, 2011.

2011 “Making Culture Count: Measuring Food Security in Vietnam and Uganda.” With Jessie Fly. Society for Applied Anthropology, March 29th-April 3rd, 2011.

2010 “Of Soil and Semiotics: Competing Moral Mandates and Visions of Indigeneity in a Park-People Conflict on Mt. Elgon, Uganda.” American Anthropological Association, November 17th-21st, 2010, New Orleans, Louisiana.

2009 “Who’s Indigenous Here?: Narratives of Indigeneity and the Struggle for Land Rights on Mount Elgon, Uganda.” Society for Applied Anthropology, March 17th-21st, 2009, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

2007 “Clearing, Claiming and Contestation: Men’s Strategies for Negotiating Access to Land and Navigating Conflict in Zambia.” Society for Applied Anthropology, March 27- April 1, 2007. Tampa, Florida.

2006 “Shifting Boundaries, Breaking Promises: Environmental Degradation and Economic Inequality on the Edge of Mt. Elgon National Park, Uganda.” Society for Applied Anthropology, March 28-April 2, 2006. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

2002 “People of the Land: Land Tenure and Food in Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.” Dean’s Scholar Summer Research Presentations. October 21, 2002. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Research Experience:
Ethnographic dissertation research. September 2009-August 2010. Principal Investigator for the dissertation research project “In the Aftermath of Displacement: Producing Vulnerable Livelihoods and Food Insecurity on Mount Elgon, Uganda.”

Research assistantship. October 2007-October 2008. Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
Assisted Jessie Fly (University of Georgia) with a year-long ethnographic research project funded by the National Science Foundation, Wenner Gren, and Fulbright-Hays. Research focused on environmental change and livelihoods insecurity.

Ethnographic research. May-July 2006. NSF Fieldschool, Chikanta, Zambia.
As part of the NSF Ethnographic Methods Field School, led by Dr.s Lisa Cliggett and Deborah Crooks, I carried out research on migration history, field histories, household economy, gendered labor and landscapes, and agriculture.

Ethnographic research. June-August 2005. Mt. Elgon, Uganda.
Conducted two months of participant observation and numerous interviews with government officials, NGO staff, and Sabiny agro-pastoralists throughout the Benet Resettlement Area of Mt. Elgon, examining the effects of conservation-related resettlement and land rights insecurity on landuse, livelihoods, and food security as well as the politics of environmental conservation in Uganda.

Research assistantship. August 2004-2006. University of Georgia.
Coordinated electronic information, aided in web design and compiled database materials regarding community-based conservation for the Conservation & Community Lab—“Advancing Conservation in a Social Context” project, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Honors thesis ethnographic research. January 2003-May 2003. Samoa.
Conducted research that focused on social change and the human dimensions of deforestation in Samoa, examining national forest policy, traditional land tenure, and the politics of resource use.

Preliminary thesis research. May 2002-September 2002. Cornell University and Harvard University.
Conducted literature reviews at the libraries of Cornell University and Harvard University, concerning social change and development in Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, with an emphasis on food production and land tenure systems.

Research internship. July 2001-November 2001. Cultural Survival.
Assisted Dr. Ian McIntosh (director of Cultural Survival) in compiling and analyzing the literature concerning indigenous peoples and mining corporations for the International Institute for Environment and Development’s Mineral Mining and Sustainable Development program.

Research internship. May 2001-July 2001. Guandera and Jatun Sacha Biological Reserves, Ecuador.
Assisted a variety of different research projects concerning organic and sustainable agriculture, agroforestry surveying, environmental conservation, crop diversification, reforestation, community outreach and trail and station maintenance at the Guandera and Jatun Sacha Biological Stations.

Ethnographic museum internship. April 2000-May 2000. Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
Worked on the museum’s collection of ethnographic objects from the Amazon region, consolidating and verifying accession and other information.