advising

DOCTORAL

current

  • Ainhoa Mingolarra, PhD program, 2017-presesnt (dissertation topic: water governance in Latin America and the Caribbean).

  • Mirella Pretell, PhD program, 2019-present (dissertation topic: feminist political ecology of oil extraction and indigenous women in the Peruvian Amazon).

FORMER

  • Katie MacDonald, PhD Geography, May 2025 (dissertation title: “Cultivating post-Soviet gardens: Saving seeds and the household plot in rural Tajikistan”). Dissertation funded by grants from Fulbright and Department of Education Title VII Research Scholar Program for Central Asia.

  • Akemi Inamoto, PhD Geography, May 2025 (dissertation title: “Governing the paddies: Emotions, dispossession, and gendered struggles for resource access in rice farming in Tolima, Colombia”). Dissertation funded by Society of Woman Geographers Evelyn L. Pruitt National Fellowship for Dissertation Research and grants internal to Syracuse University.

  • Claudia Díaz-Combs, PhD Geography, May 2024 (dissertation title: “‘When the water stops but the bills never do’: Contentious water politics and collective action in El Salvador”). Dissertation funded by grants internal to Syracuse University. Now Assistant Professor, Department of History & Philosophy, SUNY Old Westbury.

  • Manuela Ruiz-Reyes, PhD Geography, December 2020 (dissertation title: “¿Campo para la/os jóvenes? Exploring campesina/o youth subjectivities in contemporary Colombia”). Dissertation funded by grants internal to Syracuse University.

  • Alejandro Camargo, PhD Geography, graduated with distinction, May 2016 (dissertation title: “Disastrous waters, renascent lands: Politics and agrarian transformations in post-disaster Colombia”). Dissertation research funded by a COLCIENCIAS Francisco José de Caldas research fellowship (Government of Colombia). Currently Assistant Professor, Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia.

  • Emily Billo, PhD Geography, graduated December 2012 (dissertation title: “Competing sovereignties: Oil extraction, corporate social responsibility, and indigenous peoples in Ecuador”). Dissertation research funded by a National Science Foundation DDRI grant and an Inter-American Foundation fellowship. Currently Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Florida State University.

  • Elvin Delgado, PhD, Geography, graduated May 2012 (dissertation title: “Spaces of socio-ecological distress: Fossil fuels, solar salt, and fishing communities in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela.”)  Dissertation research funded by Fulbright-IIE grant.  Now Associate Professor of Geography, Central Washington University.

  • Keith Lindner, PhD Geography, graduated with distinction, December 2012 (dissertation title: “Returning the Commons: Resource Access and Environmental Governance in San Luis, Colorado”). Dissertation funded by a UC Berkeley Community Forestry and Environmental Research Partnerships Dissertation Fellowship and a National Science Foundation DDRI grant ).  Currently co-owner, Underground Beer Lab, Syracuse, NY

  • Beatriz Bustos Gallardo, PhD Geography, graduated May 2010 (dissertation title: “Geographies of knowledge production in a neoliberal setting: The case of Los Lagos region, Chile”).  Now Associate Professor of Geography, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.  

  • Matthew Himley, PhD Geography, graduated with distinction, May 2010 (dissertation title: “Frontiers of Capital: Mining, Mobilization, and Resource Governance in Andean Peru.” Dissertation research funded by Fulbright-Hays grant); MA Geography, graduated with distinction, August, 2005 (MA thesis title: “The politics of land and forest: nature conservation in highland Ecuador”).  Now Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Geology, Illinois State University.

  • Miguel Conteras, PhD Geography, December 2019 (dissertation title: “Regionalist Social Movements in Contemporary Chile: Production of Space, Place, Territory, and Scale Through Collective Action”). Dissertation work funded by a Fulbright Fellowship and a Becas Chile fellowship (CONICYT). Now Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Universidad de Chile.

MASTER’S

FORMER

  • Jamie Gagliano, MA program, Geography, graduated 2020 (thesis title: “Agroecology feminisms: Gender, Social Movements and alternatives to industrial agricutlure in Paraguay”)

  • Andrea Funaro, MA in Geography, April 2018 (thesis title: “A Political Ecology of Mining Extraction in Chile”)

  • Anna Van de Grift, MA in Geography, August 2017 (thesis title: “Participation or conformity: Peruvian water governance, law and the failed attempt to establish a water basin council”).

  • Andria Aguilar, MA program, graduated with distinction, May 2017 (thesis title:" Quinoa or quinua? Political ecologies of organic production in an international commodity chain").

  • Marian Turniawan, MA in Geography, May 2015 (thesis title: “Constructing a Counter-Discourse: The Politics of Knowledge Production at the Latin American School of Agroecology”).

  • Catherine Adams, MA Geography / MPA (Master of Public Administration), graduated May 2003 (thesis title: “Defending our place: protest on the Southside of Syracuse”).

  • Barbara Green, MA Geography, graduated December 2010 (thesis title: “Capitalism in a poncho: social movements, hydrocarbons development, and contested national identities in Bolivia).

  • Mike Kantor, MA program, graduated Geography 2012 (thesis title: “Banking on the impossible: The political life of wetlands in southern Louisana”).

  • Aman Luthra, MA Geography / MPA (Master of Public Administration), graduated December 2004 (thesis title: “Revisiting Shangri-la: landscape representation and the politics of development in Bhutan”).

  • Flavia Rey de Castro, MA program, Geography graduated 2013 (thesis title: "Water politics: Governance, conflict and vulnerability in Andean Peru").

  • Sandra Sánchez, MA Geography, graduated December 2007 (thesis title: “Community-based (eco) tourism: indigenous livelihood-development strategies in the Ecuadorian Amazon”).

  • Mauri Stott, MA Geography / MAPA (Master of Arts in Public Administration), graduated December 2003 (thesis title: “Hanging in the balance: sustainable development and politics of scale on the lower Chesapeake Bay, tidewater Virginia”).

UNDERGRAD

FORMER

  • Heleina Cicero, BA, Political Philosophy and Environment, Sustainability & Policy, Renée Crown Honors Program, Syracuse University, graduated May 2025. (thesis title: “Anthropogenic Climate Change in the Adirondack Region and the Impact on Boreal Bird Habitat and Populations: A Meta-Analysis).

  • Micah (Deborah) Orieta, BA, Geography and Food Studies, Renée Crown Honors Program, graduated May 2020 (thesis title: “Cultivando nación:Alternative Agri-culture in post-María Puerto Rico”).

  • Rachel Bass, BA, International Relations, graduated May 2016 with University Honors (Thesis title: “Postcolonial discourses of gender and development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region”).

  • Haley Kulikowsky, BA, International Relations, graduated May 2016 with University Honors. (Thesis title: “Ecuador’s Yasuní-ITT program: a post neoliberal policy?”).

  • Emily Malina, BA International Relations and Public Relations, graduated May 2016 with University Honors. (Thesis title: “Reclaiming Identities: Inter-cultural Bilingual Education in Peru and Bolivia”).

  • Amory Hillengas, BA Geography, graduated May 2010 with University Honors and Departmental Distinction (thesis title:” Accessibility in the Syracuse Food Desert”).

  • Alexis Sheehan Kinney, BA Geography, graduated May 2010 with University Honors and Departmental Distinction (thesis title: “The Commodification of the Modern Black Man:  Examining the Effect of Drug Laws on the New York State Prison Industrial Complex”).           

  • Kristin Novak, BA Geography, graduated May 2008 with University Honors (thesis title: “Overfishing and Environmental Justice in Marine Fisheries,” Awarded Best Honors Thesis in the Social Sciences at Syracuse University, 2007-2008).

  • Dave Oster, BA Geography, graduated May 2014 with departmental distinction (Thesis title: “Addressing the environmental impact of agriculture: The farm bill and conservation in Central New York”).

  • Rose Tardiff, BA Geography, graduated May 2015 with University Honors (Thesis title: "Towards an expansion of the Salt City Harvest farm: Exploring a community farm's impact, challenges, and the agricultural ways and aspirations of its New American farmers." Awarded Best Honors Thesis in the Social Sciences at Syracuse University, 2014-15).

  • Syed Shehtaaz Zaman, BA Geography with Departmental Distinction, graduated May 2010 (thesis title: “The Bangladeshi Miracle: Post-Colonial Bangladesh and the Central Challenges Facing the Political Economy).

OTHER MENTORING

  • Javier Lugo, Ph.D.,  Colegio de Michoacán, Mexico (Fall, 2018)

  • Matías Calderón Seguel,Ph.D. student, Anthropology, Instituto de Arqueología y Antropología, Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile (2016-17). Currently Assistant Professor, Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Tarapacá, Iquique (Chile).

  • Xochizeltzin Castañeda Camacho, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosí, Mexico. Currently Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, St. Olaf’s College.

  • Diego Andreucci, Ph.D. student, Political Ecology, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain (visiting student, Spring, 2015). Currently Department of Geography, University of Barcelona.   

  • Dr. April Baptiste, Environmental Studies Program, Colgate University 

  • Dr. Laura Eichelberger, Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, San Antonio 

  • Andrea Furnaro, MSc. student, Sociology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago (visiting student, Spring 2015).

  • Dr. Jaime Hoogesteger, Chair Group in Water Resources Management, Wageningen University (The Netherlands)  

  • Dr. Milagros Sosa Landeo, Chair Group in Water Resources Management, Wageningen University (The Netherlands) (visiting student, spring 2012).

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