I am an anthropologist and political ecologist from El Salvador. I earned my PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I currently work as a lecturer
I specialize in urban political ecology and critical development studies, with a focus on global land politics. I am interested in how struggles over the meaning and materiality of land shape different dimensions of human experience, from the satisfaction of basic needs like food, water, and housing to more abstract ideas about property, sovereignty, and self-determination.
My first book project, tentatively titled, Forests of Speculation: Land, Urbanization, and the Birth of Real Estate Populism in El Salvador, explores the relationship between global real estate markets and environmental conflict in Nuevo Cuscatlán, a rural district whose forested lands have been targeted for peri-urban gentrification. Moving beyond essentialist narratives about local corruption, the book analyzes how decades of market-oriented territorial policies reimagined the place as a stock of property assets for speculative investment, triggering a process of resource grabbing that laid the groundwork for the rise of authoritarian populism.
My work has been published in academic journals such as Antipode, City & Society, and The Journal of Peasant Studies. I have also written for Central American newspapers like El Faro, Focos and MalaYerba.
CONTACT
Email: jcg2653@live.unc.edu
Photo by Parag Saikia