Keely Maxwell

Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies

I am an environmental anthropologist and  conduct research on Andean human-environment relations and on the cultural politics of conservation. I speak Spanish, German, and Quechua. Before coming to F&M, I was a visiting lecturer in the Environmental Studies Program at Bates College.  When not hard at work at F&M, I can be found hiking in the woods or cycling around the Lancaster countryside.

You can see some of the places where I work in my photo gallery.

Education

Yale University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Ph.D. in Environmental Studies. May, 2004
M.S. and M. Phil. in Environmental Studies. 2001

Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
M.F.S. (Master of Forest Science) in Ecosystem Ecology and Management. 1998

Williams College
Magna cum laude B.A. in Biology; Environmental Studies concentration. 1993

School for Field Studies, Northeastern University
Sustainable Development Studies Semester Program in Costa Rica. 1991

Teaching

ENV 117 Environment and Human Values
ENV 216 Environmental Policy
ENV 314 Comparative Environmental Politics
ENV 373 Conservation and Society
FND 189 Andean and Amazonian Natures

Research Projects

Vicuña Conservation
The commodity chain of vicuña fiber spans from marginalized Andean communities to high-end fashion retailers.  In the Peruvian highlands, vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) share grassland ecosystems with pastoralist communities.  In 1993, the Peruvian government granted usufruct rights over this endangered species to select communities, which keep vicuña in 1000 ha corrals.  Once a year, they harvest fiber during a chaku, an Inca herding-and-shearing technique.  Since 1994, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has permitted international trade in fiber harvested from chakus. Peru heralds this market- and community-based wildlife management strategy as a success.  This strategy of conserving vicuña while promoting socioeconomic development in remote Andean communities raises intriguing questions about the geographical contingencies of harnessing market forces and meshing state and community authority in wildlife conservation.  I analyze the commodity chain of vicuña fiber, determining what factors shape regulatory frameworks, the distribution of cost and benefits, the cultural meaning of vicuña. I also examine the history of human-animal relations.  I problematize the historic causes of vicuña endangeredness, and the boundary between wild and domestic animals. My research provides insights into how the intersection of conservation policies and trade practices influences Andean land use and livelihoods.

Natural and Cultural Heritage Conservation in Machu Pichu
The Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary is a Peruvian protected area and World Heritage Site that attempts to conserve natural and cultural heritage. Conservation efforts, however, are complicated by excessive tourism, continued ecological decline, impoverishment of rural villagers, institutional conflicts, and corporatization of a national monument. What do cultural and natural heritage mean, anyway? How did particular places within the Sanctuary become recognized as heritage space? Who claims rights and responsibilities to this heritage space? Tourists interpret the spatial relation of nature to culture as primarily aesthetic, with the wonder of the archaeological site heightened by its backdrop of cloud forest peaks. Yet geographically partitioning nature and culture in this manner obscures the struggles for territorial authority and material benefits that are inextricably enmeshed in deciding what and where natural and cultural heritage are in the Historic Sanctuary. I analyze the cultural politics of how social actors define concepts of natural and cultural heritage and seek to inscribe heritage on the landscape. My research illustrates how the spatial practices of heritage conservation in Machu Picchu reproduce modern Peruvian struggles over state identity, indigeneity, and development.

Recent Honors

• Agrarian Studies Program Fellow, Yale University, 2008-09
• Participant, National Endowment for the Humanities workshop "Andean Worlds: New Dierections in Scholarship and Teaching"

Select Publications

• 2009. Caught between nature and culture: making a living within the World Heritage Site of Machu Picchu, Peru. (with A. Ypeij). M. Baud & A. Ypeij (Eds.) Cultural Tourism in Latin America: the Politics of Space and Imagery. Leiden: Brill. pp. 177-196.
• 2007. Campesinos metalizados and bureaucratic rituals: conflict over livelihoods, regulations, and tourism on the Inca Trail. A. Ypeij & A. Zoomers (Eds.) The Andean Route: Tourism and Sustainable Development in Peru & Bolivia. Cusco: Centro Bartolomé de las Casas. pp. 85-104. In Spanish. oclc:213299411
• (with M. Dove et al). 2008. The concept of human agency in contemporary conservation and development discourses. In B. McCay, et al (Eds.) Against the Grain: the Vayda Tradition in Human Ecology & Ecological Anthropology. Lexington Books. Ch. 14: 219-247. oclc:181328207
• 2006. Dead wood politics: fuelwood, forests, and society in the Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary. In K. Vogt et al (Eds.) Forests & Society: Sustainability & Life Cycles of Forests in Human Landscapes. Cambridge: CABI Publishing. pp. 50-54. oclc:62330774

Conferences

• Shorn vicuña, saved vicuña: wildlife conservation and commodification in the Andes. Paper, American Anthropological Association. Philadelphia. December, 2009.
• Vicuñas in Peru: hunting histories. Paper, World Congress of Environmental History. Copenhagen. August, 2009.
• Kikillan wiñan: people and forests in the Andes. Paper, Eleventh International Congress of Ethnobiology. Cusco, Peru. June, 2008.
• Nature & history in Machu Picchu: a modern production of space. Paper, Latin American Studies Association. Montreal, Canada. September, 2007.
• Implementing vicuña conservation in the face of trade liberalization: state, community, and market relations in Apurimac, Peru. Poster, Society for Conservation Biology. Port Elizabeth, South Africa. July, 2007.
• Changing space, changing identity: making the Inca Trail. Paper, American Society for Environmental History. Baton Rouge. March, 2007.
• The train to Machu Picchu: connecting or disconnecting space, time, and identity. Paper, American Association of Geographers. Chicago. March, 2006. Abstract available online: http://communicate.aag.org/eseries/aag_org/program/AbstractDetail.cfm?AbstractID=9306
• Deploying and contesting Inca "in harmony with the environment" in contemporary Peruvian resource management politics. Paper, American Anthropological Association. Washington, D.C. November, 2005.

Contact

keely.maxwell@fandm.edu
Phone: 717 358 4549
Fax: 717 291 4186
Office: P-106