Dr. Jessica Piekielek studied cultural and applied anthropology at the University of Arizona. She has research interests in environmental anthropology, especially conservation and environmentalism, and U.S.-Mexico border studies. In her dissertation, she explored the themes of conservation, wilderness, and the shifting construction of borders. Her dissertation fieldwork was based at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, and El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve in Sonora, Mexico.
Jessica has taught introductory and environmental anthropology classes at the University of Arizona and Pima Community College in Tucson. She also worked as a research assistant at the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, exploring the histories and successes of small, rural cooperatives in Brazil and Paraguay and the possibilities for community-created green spaces in Nogales, Mexico.
Before entering graduate school, Jessica served as a policy advocate on indigenous affairs for a Quaker non-profit lobby organization in Washington, DC. |
