I am a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations at Michigan State University. My current research concerns the imagination and reality of a “sociobioeconomy” in the Brazilian Amazon. I explore different community resonances of this model across the state of Pará, in terms of social access, policy implementation, economic justice and land management.
For my doctorate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I conducted a transdisciplinary project on the post-frontier Transmazon highway, tracing livelihood and land system transformations. This work used participatory observation, remote sensing analysis, surveys, and multi-species ethnography to better understand transitions between frontier, sugarcane plantation, cattle ranching, cacao and agroforestry complexes, over a 50-year period.
Of particular research interest are smallholder peasant landscapes and movements resisting frontiers and plantations, agroecology and soil knowledges, Indigenous community livelihoods, and the politics of climate finance.
Concurrently I am developing research and teaching on applied agroecology and biodiversity conservation in Valle de Cauca, Colombia.
Robert Davenport 