معرفی
Dr. Nora Sylvander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Croft Institute for International Studies at the University of Mississippi, College of Liberal Arts. She holds a joint appointment in Anthropology and International Studies and serves as Co-Director of the Geography minor. Her work bridges human geography, political ecology, and Latin American environmental politics.
Her research focuses on the political and economic drivers behind environmental conservation, particularly how protected areas lead to the dispossession of indigenous and local communities in Latin America. She critically examines how conservation narratives obscure histories of colonization and territorial appropriation. Her long-term fieldwork in Nicaragua challenges the framing of indigenous-migrant conflicts as purely ethnic, revealing deeper state and economic influences.
Dr. Sylvander's recent publications analyze conservation discourses, territorial belonging, and exclusionary environmental policies, especially in Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve. Her work spans critical conservation studies, indigenous rights, and environmental justice, often highlighting the role of discourse in legitimizing land dispossession. She advocates for more equitable and historically grounded approaches to environmental governance.
- Conservation regimes of exclusion (2023)
- Territorial cleansing in Nicaragua (2021)
- Racializing discourses in conservation (2021)
- Critique of 30% Earth protection (2021)
- Territorial sanitization in Nicaragua (2018)
Dr. Sylvander has been involved in international research and development work, including with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Nicaragua. She was a Fellow in Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science after completing her Ph.D. She mentors students through the Croft Institute and teaches courses such as Introduction to Environment and Society and Political Ecology. She is actively engaged in curriculum development, particularly through her leadership in the Geography minor.
She is affiliated with the Croft Institute for International Studies and contributes to interdisciplinary programs in Anthropology, International Studies, and Geography. Her work integrates critical theory, field-based research, and policy analysis to address pressing issues of environmental justice and territorial rights in the Global South.
