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amity a. doolittle

curriculum vitae

Amity A. Doolittle

Contents

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Mailing Address
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
210 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511 USA

Phone: 203.432.9771
Email: amity.doolittle@yale.edu

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SUMMARY

My research focuses on how control over and access to natural resources is defined, negotiated and contested by society and state, specifically in Southeast Asia and developing countries. My approach is interdisciplinary, combining perspectives from anthropology, political science, environmental history and political ecology to explore property relations and conflicts over resources use. Specific interests include:

  1. issues surrounding international environmental justice, specifically focusing on social inequality and the maldistribution of wealth, resources and hazardous waste based on issues of power, ethnicity, race and class

  2. the impact of global discourses of conservation and economic growth on local land-use practices

  3. the ways in which decision-making and power structures between northern and southern countries and elites and marginalized people influence patterns of resource allocation

  4. the discourses and practices of colonial rule over native people in North Borneo, particularly in reference to native customary law and land rights and the imposition colonial land laws

  5. the particularities of contemporary property relations and how these relationships articulate with local and extra-local conflict for wealth, power and identity.

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POSITIONS
2009 to present Lecturer and Research Scientist, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
2005–2008 Associate Research Scientist and Lecturer, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
2001–2005 Lecturer and Post Doctoral Appointment, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
2001–2008 Program Director, Tropical Resources Institute, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

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EDUCATION
1994–1999 Yale University, New Haven, CT
PhD. In Forestry & Environmental Studies, 1999, entitled “Controlling the Land: Property Rights and Power Struggles in Sabah, Malaysia, 1881–1996.”
1992–1994 Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT
Master of Environmental Sciences, in Tropical Ecology.
1983–1987 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Bachelor of Arts in Biological Anthropology,
magna cum laude.
Senior Honors Thesis: “Latah: A Culture-Bound Syndrome.” An examination of cultural and physiological origins of a behavioral trait specific to women in certain ethnic groups in Southeast Asia.

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HONORS, AWARDS, and GRANTS
2009 Advancing Conservation in a Social Context, Travel grant to meet with collaborators in Athens, Georgia.
2007 McMillan Center Faculty Support Grant, Livelihood Strategies of Agricultural Communities in the Buffer Zone of Cusuco National Park, Honduras, $5000
2006–2011 Yale Education, Leadership, and Training Initiative, Co-PI (Lead PI, Mark Ashton), $4.8 million to develop short courses and workshops on conservation of biodiversity for national in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
2004-2007 Compton Foundation, Funds for Graduate Field Research Fellowships for African and Latin American Students, PI Curran, Doolittle and Yale FES Compton Foundation, $150,00
2001–2005 Agroforestry Fellowships for Africa. Awarded $20,000 annually from the World Agroforestry Centre for student fellowships, PI Curran and Doolittle
2004 Agroforestry in Landscape Mosaics. Award from the World Agroforestry Centre to work as project manager on a collaboration between Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, University of Georgia Anthropology Department and World Agroforestry Centre, $15,000
2003 Yale Class of 1980 Video Editing Center, Co-PI David Kneas and Amity Doolittle, $8,500
2003 Larry and Margaret King Distinguished Lecture Series, PI Curran and Doolittle, $10,000
2003 Cooperative Grants, Association of International Educators, funding for “Strengthening International Student Capacity and Networks at Yale's School of the Environment,” $2,000
2002 Yale Center for the Study Globalization funding for Lecture and Film Series “Globalization and the Environment: International Agendas and Local Responses,” $15,000
2002 Yale Center for International and Area Studies funding for Lecture and Film Series “Globalization and the Environment: International Agendas and Local Responses,” $5,000
1997 Enders Fellowship, Yale University, New Haven, CT, $2,500
1996 Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, University of Malaya, Research Fellow
1995 Fulbright-Hays, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award, $32,000
1995 National Science Foundation, Law and Social Science Program, Dissertation Improvement Award, $6,300
1995 Social Science Research Council/American Council of Learned Societies, Southeast Asia Program, International Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, $8,000
1994 Yale Center for International and Area Studies, predissertation award
1994 Yale Council on Southeast Asian Studies, predissertation award
1994–1998 Yale University Doctoral Fellowship
1992, 1993 N. Brown Scholarship, Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
An award offered to “individuals who have demonstrated particular promise as natural resource practitioners, scholars and conservationists.”
1987 Radcliffe College President's Discretionary Fund, Harvard College
Support for research at Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA
1987 International Fund for Animal Welfare
Support for research at Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA
1987 World Wildlife Fund
Support for research at Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown, MA
1985, 1986, 1987 Harvard College Scholarship, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
1985–1987 Elizabeth Cary Aggasiz Certificate of Merit, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
MONOGRAPH
Doolittle, A. 2005. Property and Politics in Sabah, Malaysia (North Borneo): A Century of Native Struggles over Land Rights, 1881–1996. University of Washington Press, Nature and Culture Series.

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PEER REVIEWED ARTICLES
Doolittle, Amity, under review. “Climate Change Negotiations: Who will die first, who will win twice?” Conservation and Society, Special Volume with Dan Brockington as Guest Editor.
Doolittle, A. in preparation. “Environmental Justice and Hurricane Katrina.” Curriculum to accompany documentary film “Trouble the Water,” https://streamingmoviesright.com/us/movie/trouble-the-water/.
Doolittle, A. et al. submitted. “Participation at the World Conservation Congress: Limits to and possibilities for increasing deliberation and inclusiveness.” Environmental Management.
Doolittle, A. 2008. “Stories and Maps, Images and Archives: Multi-Method Approach to the Political Ecology of Native Property Rights and Natural Resource Management in Sabah, Malaysia.” Environmental Conservation.
Doolittle, A. 2007. “Native Land Tenure, Conservation, and Development in a Pseudo-Democracy: Natural Resource Conflicts in Sabah, Malaysia.” Journal of Peasant Studies. 34(3): 474–497.
Doolittle A. 2004. ”Powerful Persuasions: The Language of Property and Power in Sabah, Malaysia, 1881-1996.” Modern Asian Studies, 38 (4): 321–850.
Doolittle A. 2003. “Colliding Discourses: Western Land Laws and Native Customary Rights in North Borneo, 1881-1928” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 34 (1): 97–126.
Doolittle, A. 2001. “‘Are They Making Fun of Us?’: The Politics of Development in Sabah, Malaysia.” Moussons: Social Science Research on Southeast Asia 4: 75-95.
Doolittle, A. 2001 “From Village Land to ‘Native Reserve’: Changes in Property Rights in Sabah, 1950-1996.” Human Ecology 29 (1): 69-98.
Doolittle, A. 1998. “Historical and Contemporary Views of Legal Pluralism in Sabah, Malaysia” Forum Commentary in Common Property Resource Digest, No. 47, December 1998.

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EDITED VOLUMES
Dove, Sajise and Doolittle, eds. 2009. Complicating Conservation in Southeast Asia: Beyond the Sacred Forest Asia. Duke University Press, New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century.
Dove, M., P. Sajise, and A. Doolittle. 2005. Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia Monograph Series, Volume 54, Yale University.
Dove, M., P. Sajise, and A. Doolittle. In preparation. “Changing Ways of Thinking about the Relations between Society and Environment” in Re-Interpreting Nature and Culture in Southeast Asia.

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BOOK CHAPTERS
Doolittle, A. 2009. “Re-defining Native Customary Law: Struggles over Property Rights Between Native Peoples and Colonial Rulers in Sabah, Malaysia” in Dove, Sajise and Doolittle, eds. Complicating Conservation in Southeast Asia: Beyond the Sacred Forest Asia. Duke University Press, New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century.
Dove, M. and A. Doolittle. 2009. “Introduction: The Field and this Study” in Complicating Conservation in Southeast Asia: Beyond the Sacred Forest, New Ecologies for the Twenty-First Century.
Doolittle, A. 2006 ”Resources, Ideologies, and Nationalism: The Politics of Development in Sabah, Malaysia“ In Development Brokers and Translators, David Mosse and Davis Lewis, eds. Bloomfield, Ct.: Kumarian Press.
Doolittle, A. 2006 “Controlling the Land: Property Rights and Power Struggles in Sabah, Malaysia 1881-1996” in Environmental Change in Native and Colonial Histories of Borneo: Lessons from the Past, Prospects for the Future, Wadley, R., ed, Leiden: KTLV Press.
Dove, M., P. Sajise, and A. Doolittle. 2005. “Introduction: The Problem of Conserving Nature on Cultural Landscapes” in Nature in Culture: Case Studies from Southeast Asia. Monograph Series, no. 54. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies.
Doolittle, A. 1990. “Latah Behavior by Females Among the Rungus of Sabah,” in V. Sutlive, ed. Female and Male in Borneo: Contributions and Challenges to Gender Studies, Borneo Research Council Monograph Series, Vol. 1.

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ENCYLOPEDIA OF ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY, SAGE PRESS
Author of 14 entries original essays for this encyclopedia: ecological noble savage, Roy Rappaport, Vandana Shiva, Ramachandra Guha , Ester Boserup, land ethic, land degradation, balance of nature , fortress conservation, biopiracy , takings, usufruct rights, Theodore Roosevelt’s Conservation Administration.

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BOOK REVIEWS
Doolittle, A. 2007. Review of “The Complex Forest: Communities, Uncertainty, & Adaptive Collaborative Management,” Carol Colfer and “The Equitable Forest: Diversity, Community & Resource Management”, Carol Colfer, ed. Economic Anthropology.
Doolittle, A. 2005. Review of “In Search of the Rainforest,” Candace Slater, ed. American Anthropologist, June 10(7).
Doolittle, A. 2002. Review of “Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and Its Transformations: Critical Anthropological Perspectives,” Roy Ellen, Peter Parkes and Alan Bicker, eds. American Ethnologist 29 (1): 180-181.
Doolittle, A. 2000. Review of “The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia: Resources and Resistance,” Philip Hirsch and Carol Warren, eds. Journal of Asian Studies 59 (3): 800-801.

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RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2009 to present Integration Landscape, Human, and Wildlife Health in the Tempisque-Bebedero Watershed, Costa Rica (with Organization of Tropical Studies)
2008–2009 Event Ethnography, exploring decision-making, negotiation and discourse of human rights and equity in climate change discussions at the World Conservation Congress, Barcelona, Spain
2007–2008 Preliminary research on “Livelihood Strategies of Agricultural Communities in the Buffer Zone of Cusuco National Park, Honduras,” Santo Tomas, Honduras.
2005 to present Analysis of content and discourse of race and poverty in Media Coverage of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans.
2006 Preliminary research on “Ribereños Livelihoods Under Threat: Conflicts between Communal Reserve and International Oil Extraction, Loreto, Peru”
2005 Ethnography of a Human-Environmental Crisis: Race, Class and Hurricane Katrina, Huston, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana (with students from 2005 Environmental Justice Class).
2004 Participatory Community-Based Mapping of Natural Resources Management, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, 2005.
1995–1996 Dissertation Research, “Controlling the Land: Property Rights and Power Struggles in Sabah, Malaysia, 1881-1996.” Sabah, Malaysia.
1994–1995 Archival research at the Public records Office on colonial treatment of native customary law in North Borneo, 1881-1962, Kew England.

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UNIVERSITY TEACHING
* new interdisciplinary courses developed
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
* FES 80166 Leaves, Livelihoods, and Landscapes: Ecology, Socio-Economics and Politics of Development across Borneo, co-taught with Lisa Curran 2006, 2008
* FES 70003 Qualitative Methods for Social Science Research, 1998-2007
* FES 80069 Topics in Environmental Justice, 2004-2008
* FES 765 Globalization and the Environment: International Agendas and Local Responses, co-taught with Lisa Curran, 2003
FES 80054 Agrarian Societies, co-taught with Jim Scott, 2007
FES 2158 Project Course, Worked with 72 masters’ students advising their project courses, 2003-2008
Yale College Advanced Undergraduate Seminars
* CSSY 313 Anthropology and the Environment: Topics in Political Ecology, 2001
* EVST 285 Political Ecology: Nature, Power and Culture

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PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS/INVITED LECTURES
4/09 Discussant for “Trouble the Water,” a documentary about Hurricane Katrina. A redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes-two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning, at the Environmental Film Festival at Yale
11/08 Guest Lecturer to Yale Student Interest Group on Environmental Justice. “Why USA has not achieved a Post-racial Society”
10/08 Guest lecturer on “Environmental Justice and Public Health Issues” in Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, in Michelle Bells’ course, Environment and Human Health
9/08 Guest lecturer on “Environmental Justice and Public Health Issues” in Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health
5/08 Invited Speaker at Workshop on Teaching Environmental Justice, “Environmental Justice and Issues of Race and Sovereignty,” Wesleyan University
3/08 Guest lecturer on “Environmental Justice and Public Health Issues” in Yale School of Epidemiology and Public Health
2/08 Invited Speaker, Environments Undone: The Political Ecology of Globalization and Development, "Native land tenure, conservation, and development in a pseudo-democracy: Sabah, Malaysia," University of North Carolina
10/07 Guest Speaker on “Rapid Rural Appraisal Techniques” for Natural Resources Management Techniques in Mark Ashton’s Management Course
1/07 Invited Speaker, Mt. Everett Regional School, Sheffield, MA, “Environmentalism in the 21st Century: a focus on environmental justice,” January 18, 2007
1/07 Invited Speaker, Mt. Everett Regional School, Sheffield, MA, “The Challenge of Integrated Conservation and Development,” January 18, 2007
3/06 Invited speaker, University of California, Berkeley, Center for Southeast Asian Studies., “Property and Politics in Sabah Malaysia: Native Struggles over Land Rights.”
3/06 Invited speaker, Ohio University Athens Center for International Studies, “Property and Politics in Sabah Malaysia: Native Struggles over Land Rights.”
5/05 Invited speaker, Stanford University Malaysia Forum. “The Conservation Landscape: Histories of Native Land Struggles in Sabah, Malaysia”.
10/04 “Here There Be Tygers: Exploring Terra Incognito between Academia and Community in Participatory Mapping.” Presented at Conservation Without Borders: The Impact of Conservation on Human Communities at The Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation and Antioch New England Graduate School.
5/04 “International Politics and the Environment.” Presented at the Faculty Development Workshop Integrating Ethics into Environmental Studies at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
9/03 “Resources, Ideologies, and Nationalism: The Politics of Development in Postcolonial Sabah” Presented at Conference on Order and Disjuncture in Development at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
8/00 “Controlling the Land: Property Rights and Power Struggles in Sabah, Malaysia 1881-1996.” Presented at Conference on Environmental Change in Native and Colonial Histories of Borneo: Lessons from the Past, Prospects for the Future at International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands.
4/99 “The Politics of Development in Postcolonial Malaysia,” Presented in a Panel on Local and Trans-local: Locating Resource Control in Shifting Fields of Identity and Power at the Association of Asian Studies, Boston, Mass, March 11-14, 1999.
10/98 “The Politics of Development in Postcolonial Malaysia” Yale Council of Southeast Asian Studies, Yale University, October 7, 1998.
10/98 Discussant for paper by Arun Agrawal, “The Production of Community-in-Conservation: The Forest Councils of Kumaon,” Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, October 2, 1998.
5/98 “Are They Making Fun of Us?: Exploring State-Society Relations through Narratives of Development Politics and Oral Traditions.” Conference on Interdisciplinary Work in Progress. Yale University, April 17-19, 1998.
3/98 Discussant for paper by Peter Boomgaard, “In the Shadow of Rice: Roots and Tubers in Indonesian Agriculture,” Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, March 6, 1998.
2/97 Discussant for paper by Charles Zerner, ‘Through a Green Lens: The Construction of Customary Environmental Law and Community in Indonesia’s Maluku Islands,” Law and Society Review, Vol. 28 (5, 1994): 1079-1121, Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University, February 28, 1997.

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NON-YALE APPOINTMENTS
2008 to present Environmental editor for Borneo Research Bulletin
2008 to present Steering Committee for Research, Organization of Tropical Studies, charged with the goal to increase use of social sciences in OTS courses.
2008 to present Founding Member ISHI project in Preserving Oral Tradition
2006 to present Amazon Research Center, advisory board member, Iquitos, Peru
2006 to present Applied Ecology Working Group at the Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
2006 Reader for Canon National Parks Science Scholars Program for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
2006 External Examiner for Suzannah Sossman“Senior thesis: “Confluence of Politics and Ecology in the Brazilian Amazon,” Marlboro College, Vermont
2005–2007 Operation Wallacea, Honduras, Social Science Project Advisor
2004 to present Member of Commission on Environmental Economic and Social Policy, IUCN
2000–2005 Society for Conservation Biology, Social Science Working Group
2000 to present American Anthropological Association, member of the Environmental Anthropology section
2000 to present Fund for Urgent Anthropology, Board of Sponsors
2006 to present Borneo Research Council, Board Directors
2000 to present Organization of Tropical Studies, Assembly of Delegates
2000 to present Firebird Foundation, Board Member

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JOURNAL and PRESS MANUSCRIPT REVIEWS
American Anthropology
Journal of Ecological Economics
Hesperian Publications
Springer Science
Bullfrog Films
American Museum of Natural History Educational Modules
The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Development and Change
Asia-Pacific Viewpoint
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology
Conservation and Society
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Stanford University Press
Singapore University Press
University of Hawaii Press
Human Ecology
UNIVERSITY COMMITTEES
Yale University Committees
2002 to present Yale Council on Southeast Asian Studies, Board Member
2002 to present Yale Program in Agrarian Studies, Steering Committee
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Committees
Search Committee for Senior Faculty, with special emphasis on diversity
Academic Disciplinary Committee
Faculty Development Committee
Space Committee
Sage Hall Renovation Committee
Social Ecology Focal Group
Steering Committee the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI)
Admin istration of Compton Foundation grants
Advisor to FES student chapter of International Society for Tropical Forests (ISTF)
Advisory Board to PRORENA
Administration of IUCN internships
Steering Committee; Administration of TRI fellowship awards
COLLABORATORS
Letters of recommendation are available on request from the following professors:
Dr. Michael R. Dove, Yale University, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, micheal.dove@yale.edu
Dr. Diane Russell, Biodiversity and Social Science Specialist on the Biodiversity and Forestry Team within the USAID Economic Growth Agriculture and Trade Bureau, dirussell@usaid.gov
Dr. Nancy Lee Peluso, University of California at Berkeley, Environmental Policy, Science and Management, npeluso@nature.berkeley.edu
Dr. James C. Scott, Yale University, Department of Political Science, james.scott@yale.edu
Dr. Peter Brosius, University Of Georgia, Department of Anthropology, pbrosius@uga.edu
Dr. Mark Ashton, Yale University, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, mark.ashton@yale.edu
Dr. Lisa M. Curran, Yale University, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, lisa.curran@yale.edu

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