Mauricio Betancourt Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

Tucker 018
540-458-8196
mbetancourt@wlu.edu

Professor Betancourt is an environmental sociologist whose research focuses on studying the nature-society relationship, global environmental change, and unequal exchange and development. He has published in Global Environmental Change, The Journal of Peasant Studies, and Environmental Research: Climate. He is currently working on a book project about the guano trade in 19th-century Peru.

Education

Ph.D., Sociology, University of Oregon

M.A., Sociology, University of Oregon

M.A., Philosophy of Science, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

B.Sc., Biology, UNAM

Research

Environmental Sociology; Political Economy; Ecological Economics;
Global Environmental Change; Agriculture and Food Systems; Imperialism;
Social Theory; Environmental History.

Teaching

1. Introduction to Environmental Studies (ENV 110)
2. The Commodification of Nature (ENV 295)
3. Society and Natural Resources (ENV 202)

Selected Publications

[1] Sikirica, A., Theis, N., and Betancourt, M. (2022). Conflicting outcomes of alternative energies: agricultural methane emissions and hydroelectricity, 1975-2015. Environmental Research: Climate, doi:10.1088/2752-5295/ac8ca9.

[2] Loustaunau, L., Betancourt, M., Clark, B., and Foster, J.B. (2021). Chinese contract labor, the corporeal rift, and ecological imperialism in Peru’s nineteenth-century guano boom. Journal of Peasant Studies, doi: 10.1080/03066150.2021.1979966.

[3] Betancourt, M. (2020). The effect of Cuban agroecology in mitigating the metabolic rift: A quantitative approach to Latin American food production. Global Environmental Change, 63, 102075. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102075.

[4] González, C., Alonso, C., Mora, E., Betancourt, M., Uscanga, A., and Benítez, M. (2017). Modos de producción agrícola y conservación de la biodiversidad en México. Biodiversitas, 132: 3-6.