February 19, 2013
4:00-6:00PM
Engineering 2, Room 599
Lisa Curran (Woods Institute for the Environment/Department of Anthropology, Stanford University)
Respondents: Anna Tsing (Anthropology, UCSC) and Andrew Mathews (Science & Justice Research Center and Anthropology, UCSC)
Lisa Curran is an anthropologist and tropical ecologist who, over the last twenty five years, has carried out extensive research on forest ecology and plant/mycorrhizal relations in Indonesian forests. Through her engagement in policy research and advocacy she has participated in key forest policy conversations, including through her criticism of oil palm plantations in Latin America and South East Asia. Lisa’s current interdisciplinary research programs examine the effects of land use change, climate, drought and fire on carbon dynamics and biodiversity; and impacts of governmental policies and industrial practices on ecosystems and rural livelihoods in Asian and Latin American tropical forests. Today she will talk to us about her research on the relationship between below ground ectomycorrhyzal associates and above ground mast fruiting by important dipterocarp tree species. In a public conversation with Anna Tsing (Anthropology, UCSC) and Andrew Mathews (Science & Justice Research Center and Anthropology, UCSC) she will talk about how this research has informed her engagement with and criticism of oil palm plantations, and about how it broadens competition models that have historically been dominant in ecology.