Photo of Doane, Molly

Molly Doane, PhD

Associate Professor

Faculty Fellow, Institute for Environmental and Social Policy; Affiliated Faculty, Latin American and Latino Studies Program; Adjunct Curator, Field Museum

Anthropology, Sociocultural

Contact

Building & Room:

BSB 2128, MC027

Address:

1007 W. Harrison Street

About

My ongoing research concerns environmental politics, the anthropocene, climate refugees, alternative markets and commodities, and social movements in Mexico and the United States.  My book, Stealing Shining Rivers: Agrarian Conflict, Market Logic, and Conservation in a Mexican Forest (University of Arizona Press, 2012, 2017) explores the attempts of an NGO-led social movement to incorporate an agenda of local autonomy into a “mainstream” environmental conservation project in Oaxaca, Mexico. This book won an Award for “best book in the social sciences” from the Latin American Studies Association. Additional publications on this topic include “The Political Economy of the Ecological Native” (American Anthropologist, 2007), which won an award from the Environment and Anthropology section of the American Anthropological Association, and “From Community Conservation to the (Lone) Forest Ranger: Accumulation by Conservation in a Mexican Forest.” (Conservation and Society, 12(3): 233-244, 2014).

I have also explored alternative political and economic models as they are expressed through fair trade coffee.  My book manuscript, Meaningful Markets:  The Culture and Politics of Fair Trade Coffee, concerning fair trade coffee that is produced in Chiapas, Mexico and marketed in the Midwest and the UK.  My research and writing on these topics has also been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and through a Faculty Fellowship from the UIC Institute for the Humanities. Articles in print on this topic include “Orphans in the World System: Maya Coffee Producers in Chiapas, Mexico.” (Anthropology Now 3 (2): 17-27, September 2011) and “Relationship Coffees: Structure and Agency in the Marketplace.”  (In Sarah Lyon and Mark Moberg, eds. Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies, pp. 229-257. New York University Press, 2010).

My exploration of alternative food systems extends to organic agriculture, local food, and the politics of scale in Wisconsin. My research in Wisconsin has been supported by the UIC Dean’s Award, The Institute for the Humanities, and the OSSR at UIC. Publications on this topic include “Neoliberalism and The Roots of Resistance,”(co-authored with Ida Susser,  Anthropology Now 6 (3): 1-8) and “Politics of the Family Farm: when the neighbors poison the well,”(Anthropology Now 6 (3): 46-53, 2014). In both my coffee research and my research on organic agriculture in Wisconsin, I have paid particular attention to the consolidation of markets in food, and the effects of market concentration on livelihoods, politics, and the environment.

I have also had the opportunity—thanks to a 2019 fellowship from the Palestinian American Research Center—to learn about the production of olive oil and fair-trade olive oil in Palestine, as well as food sovereignty movements there.

In my home city of Chicago, I have been carrying out research on the local urban food system and community gardening. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Alaka Wali and Dr. Joanna Michel, and has benefitted from the participation of UIC undergraduate and graduate student researchers. Our work concerns the relationship between people, plants, and wellbeing in Chicago Community Gardens with a focus on refugees. Collaborative work was funded by the UIC Chancellor’s Global Initiative. This collaboration resulted in two museum exhibits at the IMSS and the Field Museum, respectively. My ongoing ethnographic work was funded by the Wenner- Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research in 2020.

At UIC, I have had the opportunity to participate in two vital working grous through the UIC Institute for the Humanities:  the Chicago Area Food Working Group and the Political Ecology Working Group. Both of these collegial collaborations have created vital engagements on campus through conferences, symposia, and exhibits.

Finally, I am the co-editor of Critical Green Engagements: Investigating the Green Economy and It´s Alternatives, an environmental book series published by University of Arizona Press. I am on the editorial boards of the journals, Environment and Society and North American Dialogue. I am a Consulting Anthropologist for the Wenner-Gren Foundation.

Education

PhD from CUNY, 2001