Jessica Barnes

Jessica Barnes is Associate Professor jointly appointed in the Department of Geography and the School of Earth, Ocean and Environment at the University of South Carolina, McCausland College of Arts and Sciences. A 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, she has been on the faculty since 2013 after completing her Ph.D. at Columbia University and postdoctoral fellowships at Yale Climate & Energy Institute and Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Sustainable Development, Columbia University (2010)
• M.E.M. in Environmental Management, Yale School of the Environment
• B.A. in Geography, Oxford University

Research Focus:

Dr. Barnes employs ethnographic methods to investigate the culture and politics of resource use and the differential experience of environmental change. Her work centers on water, food, and air—the resources fundamental to life—and examines how societies interact with these resources through political dynamics, social relations, materials, and technologies.

Her award-winning books Cultivating the Nile (2014) and Staple Security (2022) analyze water politics and food security in Egypt, while her current NSF- and Wenner-Gren-funded project Porous City investigates air pollution and breath in London through ethnographic fieldwork conducted 2024-25.

Scientific Awards & Fellowships:

• 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship
• ACLS Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies
• Howard Fellowship, George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation

Teaching & Advising:

Dr. Barnes teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on water resources, environmental development, global food politics, and environmental science & policy. Representative courses include:

• GEOG 347: Water as a Resource
• GEOG/ANTH 569: Environment and Development
• GEOG 730: Seminar in Environmental Geography
• ENVR 201: Environmental Science and Policy
• ENVR 538: Global Food Politics
• SCHC 337: Food and Politics

Labs & Research Groups:

She is affiliated with the interdisciplinary research communities within the School of Earth, Ocean and Environment, collaborating on projects that bridge geography, anthropology, and environmental studies.