Dave Himmelfarb

Hometown:

Newton, MA

About Me:

I'm an environmental anthropologist, specializing in the political ecology of forced migration and resource conflict. I recently finished my PhD in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia and am currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Center for Integrative Conservation Research and the USDA Forest Service, working on social vulnerability and climate change in Georgia.

My main academic interests include the anthropology of sub-Saharan Africa, political ecology, the politics of identity, gender, conflict, food and food insecurity, small holder agriculture, the social dynamics of environmental conservation, oral history, and economic anthropology. My teaching interests include, Introduction to Anthropology (4-Field), Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology, African Ethnography, Anthropology of Food, and Globalization and Consumption.

My dissertation, entitled "In the Aftermath of Displacement: A Political Ecology of Dispossession, Transformation, and Conflict on Mt. Elgon, Uganda," focuses on the long-term effects of displacement on livelihoods in the Benet Resettlement Area on the edge of Mount Elgon National Park, Uganda. More specifically, my research examines how displacement and resettlement create new relations of production, which then shape how affected individuals negotiate future political economic change and crisis. As I continue with this research, I am particularly interested in how historical processes such as forced migration, changes in conservation policy, and the neoliberalization of development inform divergent notions of place, identity, and, consequently, place-making activities among actors involved in resource conflict.

Website:

http://davehimmelfarb.com

Area(s) of Training

anthropology, applied anthropology, cultural anthropology, ethnography

Area(s) of Expertise

political ecology, anthropology of Africa, anthropology of conservation, forced migration

Most Recent Degree

PhD

Current Area of Employment

Postdoctoral Research