Research in Progress

My research examines the cultural politics of nature and environmental conservation. It is a research agenda animated by classically anthropological concerns with the relationship between nature and culture, and how these categories come to be made and enforced in social life. I further the anthropological practice of reading across perceived cultural domains to consider how the production of nature is inextricably linked to other cultural modes of difference and categorization such as race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. More specifically, I am interested in how nature comes to be produced through the symbolic and material practices of the sciences of ecology and economics and how these practices come to naturalize economic and social geographies that are the outcomes of deeply uneven social and political histories. My recent work has addressed these questions through ethnographic research in coastal Belize concerned with how scientists and citizens developed tools for articulating and representing the value of the Belize Barrier Reef.

Degrees

PhD, Stanford University, 2015

Teaching

Successful work in anthropology requires learning to hear the voices of others—to seek out and interpret narratives that offer diverse alternatives for making meaning in the world. As a teacher, I provide students with the methods to engage in this anthropological tradition, and we begin to use and understand these methods through our most basic classroom practices. My pedagogy then is intimately linked to my approach to research in anthropology. It emphasizes careful, empathic listening; the development of a theoretical toolkit for meaningful interpretation; and a commitment to the craft and practice of writing for the broad sharing of ideas. In my classroom we work to develop the capacity to listen to others and to communicate in a way so that others will then listen—not just as a mere social nicety, but also as a fundamental anthropological method and as a tangible commitment to supporting diverse ideas.

I teach courses and mentor students in cultural anthropology, environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, political anthropology and the anthropology of Mesoamerica and the Caribbean.

Recent Publications

2014 – Gallagher, Patrick and Danielle DiNovelli-Lang. “Nature and Knowledge—Contemporary Ecologies of Value.” Environment and Society. Vol. 5.

2012 – Broadbent, Eben N., Angélica M. Almeyda Zambrano, Rodolfo Dirzo, William H. Durham, Laura Driscoll, Patrick Gallagher, Rosalyn Salters, Jared Schultz, Angélica Colmenares, Shannon G. Randololph. “The effect of land use change and ecotourism on biodiversity: A case study of Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica, from 1985-2008. Landscape Ecology. 27(5): 731-744.