Anthropologist and human geographer Will Smith will present his research to Cornellians Thursday on climate change and Indigenous lives in a lecture titled “Placing Blame: Climate, Culpability and Indigenous Lives in the Philippines.”
The lecture is a part of the Ronald and Janette Gatty Lecture Series, a weekly lecture series featuring graduate students from the Southeast Asia Program, along with researchers, diplomats and other individuals who have expertise in Southeast Asia.
Smith is an anthropologist and human geographer whose research focuses primarily on human-forest interfaces, the social dimensions of agricultural production and the politics of Indigenous knowledge in both Australia as well as upland Southeast Asia. He is currently a faculty member at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Globalization and Citizenship, a leading center for humanities and social sciences research at Deakin University in Victoria, Australia.
Smith is the author of the book Mountains of Blame: Climate and Culpability in the Philippine Uplands, which studies the effects of climate change and forest management on the lives of Indigenous people. He also worked on a project called “Hazards, Culture and Indigenous Communities,” which explores the challenges that arise during the engagement between Indigenous peoples, natural hazards and land management government agencies in southern Australia.
His current research looks at the illegal wildlife trade in the Philippines and conservation-based solutions to the emergence of zoonotic disease. A zoonosis is any infectious disease that has jumped from non-human animals to humans.
The talk will be held in person and remotely at 12:15 p.m., with in-person attendance limited to members of the Southeast Asia Program. Registration is available here.