Dr. Elizabeth Eklund

Biography

Elizabeth Eklund is a Lecturer and an environmental anthropologist/political ecologist focusing on the intersection of nature and culture. Her work includes the preservation of natural and cultural resources, and she has landscape-level experience dealing with global changes, particularly climate change, and its local impacts. Her research covers topics such as water and cultural memory in rural Mexico, scenic federally protected areas in North America, and emerging land and climate justice struggles in the Global South. Eklund earned her B.S. in environmental sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, where she minored in anthropology and environmental economics policy. She completed her Master of Science in environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, focusing on natural and cultural resources in the United States National Park and National Forest Systems. She also holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology from San Diego State University, where she studied the international framework for establishing protected areas, particularly UNESCO's Man and Biosphere Reserve program. Eklund earned her PhD in 2020 from the University of Arizona, conducting research in Banámichi, Sonora, a rural community in the Sierra Madres. Her current work centers on issues of land and climate justice in resource-constrained societies and explores cultural persistence in the face of oppression and catastrophe.

Research Interests