Jeffrey Hoelle

Jeffrey Hoelle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He holds affiliations with the Environmental Studies Program, Geography, Latin American and Iberian Studies, and the Interdepartmental PhD Emphasis in Environment and Society. His research focuses on human-environment interactions in the Brazilian Amazon, particularly examining cattle ranching, deforestation drivers, and cultural dimensions of environmental change. Hoelle is co-lead of the Fulbright Amazonia Initiative (2022-2024) and led the IV Ethnobotany Project to engage students with local ecological knowledge.

Education:

• Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Florida (2011)
• M.A., Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin (2005)
• B.A., Psychology and Spanish, Southwestern University (1999)

Research Interests: Environmental anthropology, political ecology, Amazonian studies, deforestation, cattle culture, edible insects, frontier governance, and indigenous knowledge systems.

Awards:

• 2016 LASA Brazil Section Book Prize for Rainforest Cowboys
• 2011 Netting Best Student Paper Award
• 2010 Eric Wolf Prize

Grants: Includes Hellman Family Faculty Fellowship (2014) and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grants (2013, 2014).

Teaching: Courses include Introductory Cultural Anthropology, Environmental Anthropology, Political Ecology, and special topics on Amazonia and nature-culture dichotomies.

Labs/Teams: Directs the Hoelle Culture & Environment Lab, coordinating projects like the IV Ethnobotany Project and Fulbright Amazonia Initiative.