Contact Information
Name: Michael Walker
Title: Professor of Anthropology
Office Location: Mendocino 4034
Email: michael.walker@csus.edu
Office Phone: 916.278.6567
Mailing Address: 6000 J Street, Mendocino Hall 4010, Sacramento, CA 95819
Office Hours: Fall 2024- M/W 10:30am-12:00pm and by appointment
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, residents everyday engagements with water, and the governance large-scale water infrastructure in the state.
I welcome opportunities to work with students! I'm especially interested in working with graduate students on land and water issues, food, agriculture, and climate change. 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
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars