Elizabeth Eklund

Elizabeth Eklund is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University, specializing in environmental anthropology and political ecology with a focus on nature-culture intersections in climate-vulnerable communities.

Her educational qualifications include:

• B.S. in Environmental Sciences from University of California, Berkeley (minors: Anthropology, Environmental Economics and Policy)
• M.S. in Environmental Sciences from University of Virginia, Charlottesville (research on U.S. National Park/Forest Systems)
• M.A. in Anthropology from San Diego State University (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve studies in Baja California Sur)
• Ph.D. from University of Arizona (2020; ethnography of floodwater farming in Banámichi, Sonora, Mexico)

Dr. Eklund's research investigates cultural persistence amid ecological crises through frameworks of resilience and antifragility. Her fieldwork spans water-culture dynamics in rural Mexico, protected area governance in North America, and climate migration drivers in the Global South. She examines how communities narrate adaptation pathways while maintaining identity through floodwater farming traditions and cultural memory practices, particularly in resource-constrained settings facing displacement pressures.

During her graduate studies, she coordinated SDSU's Southwestern Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy (SCERP), organizing binational workshops on Tijuana River Watershed management across California-Baja California borders.