David Hoffman, cultural anthropologist, will present “How do the Ancient Elements Motivate Costa Ricans’ Migration to National Park Edges?” on Tuesday, March 15, at 5 p.m. in Ice Auditorium in Melrose Hall at Linfield College.
Hoffman will discuss why population growth in protected area buffer zones is of concern, due to its potential impact on biodiversity both within and outside the protected areas. He will present findings from his six years of anthropological work measuring and modeling Costa Rican migration to the 10-kilometer buffer zones of three Costa Rican National Parks: Carara, Arenal and Barra Honda. These findings will help Hoffman explain the motivations of Costa Rican migrants and demonstrate that, while socio-economic rationales related to conservation and development are present, something more elemental is at work. He will relate his findings back to localized management concerns and the global policy and practice of biodiversity conservation.
Hoffman is an associate professor in the anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures department at Mississippi State University. He is a cultural anthropologist specializing in environmental anthropology and his professional research interests include conservation policy and practice, human migration and protected areas, community-based conservation, co-management, political ecology, sustainable development, tourism and livelihoods. Since 2009, Hoffman’s research has focused on investigating the motivations and movement of internal migrants to the edges of Costa Rican parks and protected areas. His recent research in Costa Rica was supported by a three-year National Science Foundation grant and his dissertation fieldwork in Mexico was supported by a Fulbright Fellowship.
Hoffman received his Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Colorado. Before becoming a professor at Mississippi State University, Hoffman was an assistant professor at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. He has presented numerous lectures at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology. In 2015 he was elected as the senior at-large board member for the American Anthropological Association’s Anthropology and Environmental Society.
This talk is free and open to the public and sponsored by PLACE (Program for Liberal Arts and Community Engagement), exploring this year’s theme “Air, Water, Earth, and Fire: The Ancient Elements on a Changing Planet. For more information, contact Rob Gardner, 503-883-2677 or rgardne@linfield.edu
