Matthew Lauer
Assistant Professor
Environmental Anthropology

Office: AL-417
Tel: 619-594-0978
Email: mlauer@mail.sdsu.edu

Currently, I am Principle Investigator of a three-year (2008-2011) research project that is studying the social and ecological effects of an earthquake/tsunami that hit the western Solomon Islands. See the project website for more information about this project funded by the NSF Human and Social Dynamics Program.

I research, write, and teach about population, environmental change, indigenous rights, and conservation issues in Latin America and Oceania. I explore these topics through various theoretical perspectives, which include human ecology, political ecology, anthropological demography, geo-spatial science, and applied anthropology. In addition to the Department of Anthropology, I am also affiliated with the Center for Latin American Studies, the Sustainability and Environmental Studies Program, and I run the Environmental Anthropology Lab (EAL) here at SDSU.

See these links for more information about my research in the Solomon Islands and Venezuela, my past development work as a Peace Corps volunteer, the courses I teach, and my current CV.

Recent publications:

Lauer, Matthew, and Shankar Aswani. (2009) "Indigenous ecological knowledge as situated practices: Understanding fishers’ knowledge in the western Solomon Islands." American Anthropologist 111:317-329. (download)

Lauer, Matthew, and Shankar Aswani. (2008) "Integrating indigenous ecological knowledge and multi-spectral image classification for marine habitat mapping in Oceania." Ocean & Coastal Management 51(6):495-504. (download)

Aswani, Shankar, and Matthew Lauer. (2006) "Benthic mapping using local aerial photo interpretation and resident taxa inventories for designing marine protected areas." Environmental Conservation 33(3): 263-273. (download)

Lauer, Matthew. (2006). "State-led democratic politics and emerging forms of indigenous leadership among the Ye’kwana of the upper Orinoco." Journal of Latin American Anthropology 11(1): 51-108. (download)

Aswani, Shankar, and Matthew Lauer. (2006). "Incorporating fishers’ local knowledge and behavior into geographical information systems (GIS) for designing marine protected areas in Oceania." Human Organization 65(1): 80-101.