Jessica Pouchet

Educational Background

Ph.D., Northwestern University, Anthropology

Research Interests

Jessica Pouchet is a sociocultural and linguistic anthropologist whose research explores the intersection of language and the environment.

Her current book project examines the ways in which people who live on the borders of a protected forest in Tanzania negotiate environmental value, debate political legitimacy, and participate in conservation governance.

This primarily ethnographic project incorporates spatial and archival data to illustrate the challenging circumstances that people who live next to protected areas face as well as the discursive strategies they employ to navigate those circumstances.

Pouchet’s research has been supported by several organizations, including the National Science Foundation, The Wenner-Gren Foundation, and Fulbright-Hays.

Prior to pursuing research in Tanzania, Pouchet conducted research on sustainability and desert agriculture in Egypt with the American University in Cairo, worked at an international development organization in Washington, D.C., and served as a reporter at The Trinidad Guardian in Trinidad & Tobago.

Courses

• Identity, Inequality, and the Environment
• Language and Environmental Politics
• Conservation in Africa
• Environmental Ethnography