My work has appeared in both academic and public-facing outlets such as Cultural Anthropology, Economic Anthropology, Nature Plants, Rural Sociology, and the NACLA Report on the Americas. My book manuscript (provisionally titled The Forest and the Factory: Debt, Development, and Community in the Brazilian Amazon) recounts an intergenerational history of environmental justice organizing and the struggle of Amazonia’s mixed-descendant farmers, fishers, and agroforesters to transform the failures of 20th century modernization policies into 21st century demands for healthcare, environmental protections, and other forms of social inclusion.
Some of these articles and reviews might have paywall restrictions. Contact me at mwabel [at] smu.edu if you need help getting access.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
2022. “The struggle for health: medical brokerage and the power of care in Brazil’s Amazon estuary.” Cultural Anthropology 37(3).
2022. “Merchants of the north: infrastructure and indebtedness along Brazil’s Amazon estuary.” Economic Anthropology 9(2).
2020. (Brent Kaup, Matthew Abel, and Amanda Sikirica). “Individualized environments, individual cures: an examination of Lyme disease activism in Virginia.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 4(2).
2019. (Andrew Flachs and Matthew Abel). “An emerging geography of the agrarian question: spatial analysis as a tool for identifying the new American agrarianism.” Rural Sociology 84(2).
Book Chapters
2024. (Richard Pace, John Ben Soileau, Matthew Abel, and Cynthia Pace-Cisneros). “Struggles and Setbacks to Sustainability.” In Chronicling Amazon Town, University of Florida Press, eds. Richard Pace and Helena Lima.
2024. (Richard Pace, Pedro Alves Veira, and Matthew Abel.) “Rainforest Guardians and Sustainable Development.” In Chronicling Amazon Town, University of Florida Press, eds. Richard Pace and Helena Lima.
2024. (Richard Pace and Matthew Abel.) “Social Conflict and the Rise of Gurupá’s Social Movements.” In Chronicling Amazon Town, University of Florida Press, eds. Richard Pace and Helena Lima.
Reports & Public-Facing Scholarship
2021. “Transnational grain trade threatens Brazil’s Amazon.” NACLA Report on the Americas 53(1).
[Em português: “Comércio internacional de grãos ameaça a Amazônia brasileira.” NACLA Online.]
Book Reviews
2023. Review of The Tropical Silk Road: The Future of China in South America. Edited by Paul Amar, Lisa Rofel, María Amelia Viteri, Consuelo Fernández-Salvador, and Fernando Brancoli. NACLA Report on the Americas 55(1).
2021. “Soy Power.” Review of Seeds of Power by Amalia Leguizamón and The Government of Beans by Kregg Hetherington. Nature Plants 7(12).
Invited Talks & Workshops
2024. “A etnoecologia da bioprospecção: um estudo comparado sobre as ‘drogas do sertão’ amazônicas e o comércio de peles norte-americano.” Café com Ciência, Emílio Goeldi Museum (MPEG). August.
2023. “Power, Industry, and Agriculture along the lower Tocantins.” Department of Geography, University of Brasília (UnB). August.
2022. “Açaí, Forest Farming, and the Politics of Superfoods.” Agri-Food Workshop, Washington University in St. Louis. September.
2022. “Counterfeit Paradise or Cultural Parkland?: Extraction, Work, and Power in the Amazon Delta.” Friday Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis. February.
2019. “Agriculture, Population, and Markets in the Açaí Economy.” Amazonian Institute of Family Farming, Federal University of Pará (UFPA). September.
2019. “Amazon developments.” Center for the Analysis of Socio-Ecological Landscapes (CASEL), Indiana University. April.
2018. “Alternative agriculture movements in the US: an agrarian question?” Department of Geography, State University of Pará (UEPA). August.
Matt Abel 