My research is on tropical rain forest peoples in Latin America, especially Central America and Mexico, with extended field research in the Huasteca, Sierra Juarez, La Mosquitia, Darién and Loreto.

            My scholarship uses cultural and political ecology with participatory research mapping methodologies for nature conservation and indigenous land rights, and situating indigenous peoples within a globalizing Latin America.  My long-standing focus is on how state and transnational institutions impact indigenous resource use and land rights.

a. Since 2005, I have led an international project and First Bowman Expedition, called México Indígena (MI), the prototype for the American Geographical Society and US Foreign Military Studies Office concept for “Global Place-based GIS Research..”  We retool regional geography and foreign area studies for the digital age, combining participatory research mapping (PRM) with GIS to explore how Mexico’s neoliberal land reform program (PROCEDE) converts communal ejido lands to private property.  Results have been beneficial for indigenous communities.
         Our multi-scale GIS database aims at crafting the digital cultural landscape (so-called “human terrain”) of indigenous Mexico. The MI team has an ESRI award-winning website (http://web.ku.edu/~mexind/), including novel online SVG inactive GIS results display plus perhaps the first participatory indigenous maps displayed on Google Earth.

b. I developed the first participatory research mapping (PRM) methodology in Latin America in 1992, since pioneering its research and applied use in geography, other disciplines and development work, particularly conservations work in Central America (see Human Organization volume, Overview, Case example).  Participatory mapping continues to be a keystone activity in our research undertakings, most recently developing what our MI team calls “truly participatory GIS.”

c. I contribute to baseline studies on the geography of indigenous peoples in Central America and Mexico; in the Panamanian Darién region, maintaining my deep commitment to the Emberá/Wounaan and their comarca homeland; and in the Honduran Mosquitia to the native Miskito, Garífuna, and Pech and their biosphere reserves; and now, we extend this support to Mexico’s Nahua communities in the Huasteca Potosina and to the Zapotec communities of the Sierra Juarez in Oaxaca.

d. I am interested in state establishment and management of conservation areas and ethnic homeland districts for native peoples, mestizos, and Afro-descendants in Central America, most recently working with the Honduran and German governments establishing the Río Plátano Biosphere (are-definition), the Tawahka Asangni Reserve, and the Patuca National Park in the Mosquitia Protected Areas Corridor, part of the largest area of protected rain forest in Central America today.

e. One of my Latin Americanist Geographer assignments is Contributing Editor on Central America for the Handbook of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Library of Congress.  I encourage readers to please send me your publications to be considered for inclusion in this significant bibliographic publication (see online HLAS Website,  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas/hlashome.html).

Seminar on Central America

Cultural Ecology Seminar

Geography of Latin America

Geography of Middle America

World Regional Geography

Cultural Anthropology                           

Cultural Geography

Central America Lands and Peoples

Cultural Ecology

Geography of North American Indians

Geography of the Third World                  

Indigenous Peoples of Latin America

Louisiana Geography

2008.  (lead editor with Kent Mathewson and Craig Revels) Ethnogeographic Research in Latin America: Essays Honoring William V. Davidson.  Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University.  In Press.

2003.  (lead editor with Gregory Knapp) Participatory Mapping of Indigenous Lands in Latin America.  Special Volume.  Human Organization 62(4).

2008. (with Jerome E. Dobson, Miguel Aguilar Robledo, Derek A. Smith, John H. Kelly, and Aida Ramos Viera) “The AGS Bowman Expedition Prototype: Digital Geographies of Indigenous Mexico,” Geographical Review.  Submitted.

2008.  “Middle America,” in Handbook of Latin America Studies: No. 63, Social Sciences (U.S. Library of Congress Publication). Edited by Tracy North and Katherine D. McCann.  Austin, University of Texas Press.  In Press. (R)

2008. (second author with Kent Mathewson and Craig Revels) “William Van Davidson, Ethnogeographer of Central America,” in Ethnogeographic Research in Latin America: Essays Honoring William V. Davidson. Edited by Peter H. Herlihy, Kent Mathewson, and Craig Revels.  Geoscience Publications, Dept. of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State Univ. In Press.

2008.  “Ethnogeography of the Dooryard Orchard-Garden of the Yucatecan Maya,” in Ethnogeographic Research in Latin America: Essays Honoring William V. Davidson. Edited by Peter H. Herlihy, Kent Mathewson, and Craig Revels.  Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University.  In Press. (R)

2006. (with John Kelly and Jerry Dobson)  “Do Neoliberal Land Reforms Mean Death to the Ejido,” The Kansas Latin Americanist, Spring 2006, pages 2, 6.

2006.  (with Thomas Klak)  “Middle America,” in Handbook of Latin America Studies: No. 61, Social Sciences (U.S. Library of Congress Publication). Edited by Tracy North, Katherine D. McCann, and Lawrence Boudon.  Austin, University of Texas Press.  Pp. 242-253. (R)

2003. “Tierras Indigenas en America Central,” in Paseo pantera: una historia de la naturaleza y cultura de centroamérica. Edited by Anthony G. Coates. Washington, Smithsonian Books.

2003.  (with Gregory Knapp)  “Maps Of, By, and For the Peoples of Latin America,” in Participatory Mapping of Indigenous Lands in Latin America.  Edited by Peter H. Herlihy and Gregory Knapp.  Special Volume.  Human Organization 62(4):303-314. (R)

2003. “Participatory Research Mapping of Indigenous Lands in Darién, Eastern Panama,” in Participatory Mapping of Indigenous Lands in Latin America.  Edited by Peter H. Herlihy and Gregory Knapp.  Special Volume.  Human Organization 62(3):315-331. (R)

2002. "Mapping the Landscape of Identity," Latin America in the 21st Century: Challenges and Solutions Yearbook of the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, Vol. 27.  Edited by Gregory Knapp.  Austin, University of Texas Press. Pp. 251-268.

2002.  "Indigenous Mapmaking in the Americas: A Typology," in Cultural and Physical Expositions: Geographic Studies in the Southern United States and Latin America. Edited by Michael K. Steinberg and Paul F. Hudson.  Geoscience Publications, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University.  Pp. 133-150.

2001.  "Indigenous and Latino Peoples of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras," in Endangered Peoples of Latin America: Struggles to Survive and Thrive.  Edited by S. C. Stonich.  Greenwood Publishing Group.  Pp. 100-120.

1998.  "Participatory Zoning and Management of the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras," in Sustainable Rural Development Information System: Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Case Studies.  The World Bank (http://srdis.ciesin.org/cases/honduras-003.html). (R)

1997.  (with Andrew P. Leake) "Participatory Research Mapping of Indigenous Lands in the Honduran Mosquitia,” in Demographic Diversity and Change in the Central American Isthmus.  Edited by A. R. Pebley and L. Rosero-Bixby. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Books.  Pp. 707-736.  (R)

1997.  "Central American Indian Peoples and Lands Today" in Central America: A Natural and Cultural History. Edited by Anthony Coates. New Haven, Yale University Press. Pp. 215-240.  (R)

1997.  "Indigenous Peoples and Biosphere Reserve Conservation in the Mosquitia Rain Forest Corridor, Honduras" in Conservation Through Cultural Survival.  Edited by Stanley F. Stevens.  Washington D.C., Island Press.  Pp. 99-129.  (R)

1997.  (con Andrew P. Leake) "Investigación Cartográfica Participativa de Tierras Indígenas de la Mosquitia Hondureña," in De los mayas a la planificación familiar: Demografía del Istmo.  Edited by L. Rosero Bixby, A. Pebley, and A. Bermudez.  San José, Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica.  Pp. 37-52.  (R) 

1997.  (con Andrew P. Leake) "Investigación Cartográfica Participativa de Tierras Indígenas de la Mosquitia Hondureña," Revista Geográfica (Instituto Geográfico Nacional, Tegucigalpa, Honduras), Número 5, Época 1, p. 116-139. (R)

1995.  "La revolución silenciosa de Panamá: Las tierras de comarca y los derechos indígenas," Mesoamerica 29:77-93.  (R)

1993. "Securing a Homeland: The Tawahka Sumu of Mosquitia's Rain Forest, in State of the Peoples: A Global Human Rights Report on Societies in Danger. Boston, Beacon Press. Pp. 54-62.

1992.  "Wildlands Conservation in Central America During the 1980s: A Geographical Perspective," in Geographic Research on Latin America: Benchmark 1990 (Yearbook, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, No. 17-18).  Edited by Tom L. Martinson.  Pp. 31-43.  (R)

1990.  (with Andrew P. Leake) "The Tawahka Sumu:  A Delicate Balance in Mosquitia," Cultural Survival Quarterly 14(4):13-16.

1989.  "Opening Panama's Darién Gap," Journal of Cultural Geography 9(2):41-59. (R)

1989.  "Panama's Quiet Revolution: Comarca Homelands and Indian Rights," Cultural Survival Quarterly 13(3):17-24.  (R)

1987.  "Cambios en el paisaje cultural de los indios Emberá y Wounan (Chocoes) del Darién, Panamá," Revista Lotería, No. 368:131-143.  (R)

1986.  "Indians and Rain Forest Collide: The Cultural Parks of Darién," Cultural Survival Quarterly 10(3):57-61.

1985.  "Settlement and Subsistence Change among the Chocó Indians of the Darién Province, eastern Panama: An Overview," Yearbook, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers 11:11-16.  (R)