Field Course in Environmental Anthropology in Madagascar
Northern Madagascar is home to both some of the world's most spectacular biodiversity, and some of the world's most valuable natural resources. Unsurprisingly, different people in the region have very different ideas as to how to approach this natural wealth. While some advocate the need to conserve what is unique to the region for the sake of the future, others seek to make use of these same resources for whatever benefits they can bring in the present. Between 2008 and 2017, we have run a total of five field courses in Madagascar focusing on these and related issues, all of them involving equal numbers of students from Western and Université d’Antsiranana, our partner institution in Madagascar. Most recently, in 2015 and 2017 offerings of the course, we focussed especially on the complexities of transnational and intercultural collaboration in small-scale humanitarian, development and conservation projects in the region. For more information on this recent work, see: https://www.facebook.com/MadagascarFieldCourse
