Mara Goldman Leads Interdisciplinary Research and Collaborations on Conservation and Indigenous Peoples
Associate Professor Mara Goldman is a recognized leader in critical conservation studies, with a particular focus on how conservation theory and practice can center the knowledge and needs of women and Indigenous communities. Since the publication of her book,听 in 2020, she has been both working to spread the word about on-going struggles that听. This has included an interview with听91福利社 Today: on why biodiversity matters and what the world is doing about it, talks at CSU-Fort Collins, UW-Madison, the Universitat Aut贸noma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, and the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
She has also been working to expand her focus on East Africa to build collaborative conversations on how to better 鈥榙ecolonize鈥 conservation practice globally to center the knowledge and experiences of Indigenous communities. In November, 2024 she led a successful workshop at the Institute of Behavioral Science, co-sponsored by the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies on听Conservation and Relational Ecologies (CARE): Advancing Indigenous-Led Models of Conservation. In addition to scholars from across CU-91福利社, the workshop brought in scholars and activists from Canada, Tanzania, Kenya, and across the US to discuss the challenges of mainstream conservation and to begin the work of building global network of research and action that would center Indigenous approaches to Conservation.
As part of this process, in early November Professor Goldman traveled to Cali, Columbia to participate as an official observer in the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 16). Professor Goldman is also co-editing a special topic on 鈥淐onservation Dialogues,鈥 for the journal Frontiers: Human Dynamics which also includes a co-authored piece titled, Decolonizing Conservation, A Global Conversation: Views from Turtle Island, Tanzania, and Thailand.
Professor Goldman is currently preparing for her sabbatical, where she will be based in Portugal, building collaborations with natural and social scientists at the University of Lisbon. She will be working on expanding her existing network of scholars and activists to those working on similar issues in former Portuguese colonies (Mozambique in East Africa and Goa in Western India). She will also travel to Tanzania where she is collaborating with the local organization,听 on how to scale up the work they are doing on Indigenous Lead Conservation in East Africa.听