UMass Amherst Hosts McGill University’s Ismael Vaccaro For Distinguished Lecture in the Anthropology of Europe

AMHERST, Mass. – Ismael Vaccaro, associate professor of anthropology and environmental sciences at McGill University in Montreal, will present this year’s Distinguished Lecture in the Anthropology of Europe at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Monday, Nov. 5 from 4-5:30 p.m. in 1001 Campus Center. A reception will follow the lecture.

Vaccaro’s lecture, “The 21st Century Peasant: The Case of the Catalan Pyrenees,” will examine the region’s transformation during the last 200 years. Following economic and demographic decline, many European peripheral rural communities have moved from agro-ranching economies to integration in the leisure economy. In many cases, this has changed depopulation and economic collapse into beautification and gentrification articulated through ski resorts, conservation policies, museums, street fairs, or organic foods. Focusing on the Catalan Pyrenees, he will consider the implications for culture, heritage and political economy in Spain and beyond.

Vaccaro’s research on rural political ecology spans the globe, from Spain to Oaxaca, Mexico and the Solomon Islands. He co-edited the books “Environmental Social Sciences: Methods and Research Design” and “Social and Ecological History of the Pyrenees: State, Market, and Landscape.”

The lecture is sponsored by the UMass Amherst department of anthropology’s European Field Studies program and the Cultural Heritage in European Societies and Spaces (CHESS) program.