Bhutan
EDUCATION
B.A. in Natural Science-Biology,
Messiah College, 1992. (PA, USA)
M.P.S. in International Agriculture & Rural Development,
Cornell University, 1998. (NY, USA)
Yale University, 2005. (CT, USA)
TEACHING
- Himalayan Forests, Watersheds, and Rural Livelihoods (summer)
- Research Methods, Goshen College, USA
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Member: International Association for the Study of the Commons, American Anthropological Association
FACULTY PROFILE
My work focuses on the social aspects of environmental issues. I have studied and taught with local universities and research centers for more than a decade in Latin America and Southeast Asia. My professional interests grew out of my years of work with subsistence farmers and forest dwellers, and extends to the matters of resource access, use, and claims to conservation and to ownership.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I am interested in the negotiated regulation of resource access, by customary institutions and by state agencies. Community choices around land and forest uses are often circumscribed by the possibilities and threats they perceive regarding their continued access to those resources. I am also interested in the ecological perceptions and priorities of people whose livelihoods are directly dependent on their ongoing use of a natural resource.
