Home Page of

Andrew S. Mathews

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Florida International University

 

 

 

 

View down the valley near the Etruscan city of Cortona, Italy.  I was fortunate to spend a good part of my childhood here; this valley has one of the best developed terrace systems in the world, and has been cultivated for at least 2,500 years.  My research on community forestry in the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca, Mexico has been inspired by my belief that long term environmental and social sustainability of the kind I saw in Italy is possible in other places.

 

My research focuses on the culture of environmental institutions and the links between local communities and national and global levels of power and knowledge.  I am currently writing a book on the ethnography and history of conservation and forest management in Mexico, looking in particular at the culture of state institutions, and the links between local and national levels of forest management. I am also interested in political ecology, environmental history, the sociology of knowledge, and state building. 

 

Classes

Cultural Ecology/Ecological Anthropology ANG 5403/ANT 3403

Capstone Seminar SYG 4972

Environmental Conflicts: Political Ecology, Third World And First World, ANT 4211.01

Anthropology of Food, ANT 4211.02

Graduate Seminar in Sustainable Communities SYD 6901

 

Grading Scheme

 

 

Single Authored Publications

(2006, In Press,) "Building the Town in the Country: Official Understandings of Fire, Logging and Biodiversity in Oaxaca, Mexico,1926-2004." Social Anthropology 14(3). 25pp.

 

(2006) "Ignorancia, Conocimiento y Poder: el Corte de la Madera, el Tráfico Ilegal y las Políticas Forestales en México." Desacatos 21(mayo-agosto): 135-160.

 

(2005) "Power/Knowledge, Power/Ignorance: Forest Fires and the State in Mexico." Human Ecology 33(No. 6, December): 795 - 820.

 

(2004)  Mathews, A. S. “Forestry Culture: Knowledge, institutions and power in Mexican forestry, 1926-2001.” Ph.D. Thesis. Forestry and Environmental Studies, Anthropology. New Haven, Yale University: 575 p.

 

(2003) “Suppressing fire and memory: Environmental degradation and political restoration in the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca 1887-2001.” Environmental History 2003;8(1):77-108.

 

(2002)  “Mexican Forest history: Ideologies of State Building and Resource Use.” Journal of Sustainable Forestry 15(1): 19-30.

 

Co-Authored Articles or Book Chapters

(2006, In Press) Dove, Michael R., M. Campos, A.S. Mathews, L. Meitzner, A. Rademacher, S. Rhee, D. Smith.  (Accepted, in revision)  "Revisiting the Concept of Western Versus Non-Western Environmental Knowledge."  In Local Versus Global Science  ed. Paul Sillitoe.  Oxford, Berghahn Press.

 

(2006, In Press) Dove, M. R., A.S. Mathews, K. Maxwell, J. Padwe, A. Rademacher  “Questions of Agency in Current Conservation and Development Discourse.” in Against the Tides: The Vayda Tradition in Anthropology and Human Ecology. S. L. Bonnie McCay, and Paige West. Walnut Creek (CA), Altamira Press.

 

(2003)  Dove, Michael R., M. Campos, A.S. Mathews, L. Meitzner, A. Rademacher, S. Rhee, D. Smith.  "The global mobilization of environmental concepts: Problematizing the western/non western divide."  In Nature across cultures: Non-Western views of the environment and nature.  ed. Helaine Selin.  Kluwer, Dordrecht.

 

Manuscripts Submitted or in Preparation

 

 Book Manuscript: Working Title “Instituting Nature: Knowledge, Ignorance and Power in Mexican Forests, 1926-2001”.

 

Selected Professional Presentations

(2006)  “State Formation and Popular Environmental Politics in Mexico: Desiccation Theory, and Forest Exploitation in Oaxaca, 1926 –2001.” presented at the Third International Symposium of the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental History Association, Seville, Spain, May 2006. 

 

(2006)  Discussant for Panel “Environments, Developments and Communities: Ambiguous Alliances, Uneven Outcomes” Annual Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association. San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 17, 2006.

 

(2005)  Panel Co-Chair, "States of Nature: Inside and Outside Environmental Institutions", invited panel, 104th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Washington D.C., December 1, 2005.

 

(2005)  “Dark Acts and Public Light: Navigating the State in the Forests of Mexico.”  Prepared for invited panel on "States of Nature: Inside and outside environmental institutions", 104th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association.. Washington D.C., December 1, 2005.

 

(2005)  “Fire and Memory in the Forests of Oaxaca, Mexico.”  Presented at Environmental Studies Seminar Series, Dept. of Environmental Studies, Florida International University, October 19, 2005.

 

(2005)  “Indigenous Government, Community Forestry and the Mexican State.” Indigenous Rights and Environment in Latin America: A Symposium in Recognition of Professors Emeriti William Vickers and Janet Chernela, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, April 18 2005.

 

(2005)  “Urban understandings of fire, logging and biodiversity in Mexico, 1926-2004.”  Invited Paper: CIESAS Occidente, Guadalajara, Mexico.  April 13.

 

(2005)  Graduate Seminar in Anthropology of Bureaucracy: CIESAS Occidente, Guadalajara, Mexico.  April 13.

 

(2005)  “Building the Town in the Country: Urban Understandings of Fire, Logging and Biodiversity in Mexico, 1926-2004.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, panel on "Postindustrial Natures: Hyper-mobility and place-attachments after globalization". Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 5-10.

 

(2004)  “State Formation and Social Change in Latin America.” Yale University, April 18.

 

(2004)  “Fire History and Official Knowledge in Mexico.”  Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, April 8.

 

(2004)  “Fighting Fire and Preserving Ignorance in the Pine-oak Forests of Oaxaca.” Doctoral Research Conference, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, February 6.

 

(2003)  Co-chair of panel “Power/Knowledge and Power/Ignorance: State Environmental (Mis)representations and the Control of Nature.”  102nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 19.

 

(2003)  “Fighting Fire and Preserving Ignorance in the Pine-Oak Forests of Oaxaca, Mexico.”  Prepared for the panel on “Power/Knowledge and Power/Ignorance: State Environmental (Mis)representations and the Control of Nature.”  102nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 19.

 

(2002)  Conjuring the Environment, Saving the World and Making a Living: Biodiversity Protection, Forest Science and Community Forestry in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Prepared for the panel on "Cultures of Nature in an Era of Globalization", 101st Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 21.

 

(2002)  Commentary on Courtney Jung, “From Peasant to Indigenous: Improvisational Choreography in Mexican Rural Politics.” Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University,

November.

 

(2002)  Presentation of Research to the Community of Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico, July.

 

(2001)  "Environmental History in the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca 1887-2001: Environmental Degradation and Political Restoration."  Presented to the Yale Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, October 17.

 

(2001) Presentation of Preliminary Research Results to the Community of Ixtlán de Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico, July.

 

(2000) Discussant on Joan Martinez-Alier, “Environmental Justice, Sustainability and Valuation.” Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, March.

 

 

 

Address

Andrew S. Mathews
Assistant Professor, Anthropology
Department of Sociology & Anthropology
DM 342C, Florida International University
University Park Campus, Miami, FL 33199
Tel: 305-348-2247
e-mail: mathewsa@fiu.edu