Diana Cordoba

Diana Cordoba is an Assistant Professor at Queen's University in the Global Development Studies department. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences from Wageningen University and focuses on critical agrarian studies and political ecology.

• Education: PhD (Social Sciences), Wageningen University

Her research examines the social and environmental impacts of rural development practices, technologies, and models across Latin America, with fieldwork in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Key areas include:

• Interactions between neoliberalism and post-neoliberal governance
• Political ecology of natural resource management
• Sustainability standards and fair trade systems
• Participatory approaches in agrarian development
• State-society relations in environmental policy
• Commodity crop expansion and deforestation

Dissertations and publications since 2010 analyze power dynamics in development interventions, including Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes and value chain alliances. Her work reveals how political and technical dimensions merge in shaping rural development.

Contact: diana.cordoba@queensu.ca