Courses I Teach

ANTH 02: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

ANTH 108: Economic Anthropology

ANTH 146: Ethnographic Analysis

ANTH 174: Anthropology of Food

ANTH 192B/195B: Ethnographic Research Methods

ANTH 201: Anthropological Theory

ANTH 274: Environmental Anthropology

Selected Publications

Walker, Michael Madison. 2021 "Protecting Smallholder Land Rights in Mozambique, 1997-2017: Unfinished Business? African Studies Review 64(2):315-338.

Walker, Michael Madison. 2019. "Negotiating Access to Water in Central Mozambique: Implications for Rural Livelihoods." Economic Anthropology 6(2):222-233.

Walker, Michael Madison. 2018. "Gendered Conflict and the Micro-Politics of Riverine Use and Access in Central Mozambique." In Peace and Conflict Resolution in Africa: Lessons and Opportunities. Edited by Ernest  Uwazie. Pp. 116-130. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Walker, Michael Madison. 2016. "Negotiating Land and Authority in Central Mozambique." In Cultural Anthropology:  Contemporary, Public and Critical Readings. Edited by Keri Brondo. New York: Oxford University Press.

 Walker, Michael Madison. 2015. "Producing Gorongosa: Space and the Environmental Politics of Degradation." Conservation & Society. 13(2):129-140.

Ansoms, An, Inge Wagemakers, Michael Madison Walker, and Jude Murison. 2014. "Land Grabbing at the Micro-scale: Struggles for Space in the African Marshes." World Development 54:243-252.

Walker, Michael Madison. 2012. "A Spatio-Temporal Mosaic of Land Use and Access in Central Mozambique." Journal of Southern African Studies 38(3):699-715. 

Walker, Michael Madison. 2009. "Priest, Development Worker, or Volunteer? Anthropological Research and Ascribed Identities in Rural Mozambique." Anthropology Matters 11(1): [online]. 

Research Grants

Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (Mozambique)

Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award (Mozambique)

Research and Scholarly Interests

I am a cultural and environmental anthropologist with an ethnographic focus on Southern Africa, especially Mozambique.  My research interests combine political ecology, economic anthropology, and critical studies of development to explore questions surrounding land and water use and access.  My longterm ethnographic research in Mozambique examines the material and symbolic struggles over land, water, and livelihoods to understand how social and economic inequalities are linked to the control of land and water.  In this way, I'm concerned with how people and institutions construct and enforce property rights.  

More recently, I have taken up an interest in the history of drought in California and the use and maintenance of large-scale water infrastructure in the state.  

I welcome opportunities to work with students, using ethnographic research on land, water, food, agriculture, climate change, and other enviromental issues.  If interested, please don't hesitate to contact me! 

 

 

Professional Associations

American Anthropological Association

African Studies Association

Society for Economic Anthropology

Association for Africanist Anthropology

Anthropology and Environment Society

Society for Applied Anthropology

Association of Concerned Africa Scholars