David Kneas

David Kneas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography; Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of South Carolina, affiliated with the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on political and cultural dimensions of resource conflicts and environmental change in Latin America, particularly in Ecuador's Intag region and global mining industries.

Education:

• Ph.D. (2014), Combined Anthropology and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University
• Masters in Environmental Science, Yale University
• B.A. in Biology and Spanish, DePauw University

Research Interests: Examines resource conflicts through lenses of human geography, cultural anthropology, and political ecology. Current projects include junior mining companies' knowledge production and historical ethnography of Ecuadorian landscapes. Specializes in subsoil resource ontologies, agrarian histories, and infrastructure temporalities.

Teaching: Offers courses in environmental studies, globalization's cultural impacts, and nature-resource consumption frameworks.

Publications Trends: Recent work explores mining industry dynamics, infrastructure temporalities, and Ecuadorian resource discourses. Themes include resource fetishism, corporate prognosis performances, and the interplay between geological science and political economy.

Advising & Grants: No specific grants or advisees listed. His academic profile emphasizes field-based research and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Labs/Teams: Active in the School of Earth, Ocean & Environment's research network, though no dedicated lab is explicitly mentioned.