Willamette University

Politics

Megan Ybarra

Megan Ybarra

Education

  • PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management; University of California, Berkeley
  • BA in Latin American Studies; New York University

Teaching

My goal is to facilitate classes in which students develop a theoretical toolkit to critically engage with global politics.
  • IDS101 -- College Colloquium: Borderlands/Fronteras
  • Poli218 -- Politics in the Developing World (MOI: US)
  • Poli362 -- Latin American Politics
  • Poli376 -- Latin American Revolutions (Writing-Centered)
  • Poli386 -- Political Ecology (MOI: ARV)
  • Poli480 -- Senior Thesis (Writing-Centered)

Research

My research addresses the politics of race, violence and conservation in Latin America. My book project uses the conflicts between conservation and indigenous territorialities as a lens to understand the possibilities for peace in Guatemala following its 36 year civil war. I am also interested in migration, borders and citizenship in the Americas.

Recent Publications

Ybarra, M. (2013) You Cannot Measure a Tzuultaq'a: Cultural Politics at the Limits of Liberal Legibility. Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 45(3): 584-601.

Ybarra, M. (2012) Taming the Jungle, Saving the Maya Forest: Sedimented Counterinsurgency Practices in Contemporary Guatemalan Conservation. Journal of Peasant Studies 39(2): 479-502. Special Issue: Green grabbing: a new appropriation of nature? guest edited by James Fairhead, Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones.

Ybarra, M., Obando Samos, O., Grandia, L., and N.B. Schwartz. (2012) Tierra, Migración y Vida en Petén, 1999-2009. Guatemala City: CONGCOOP-IDEAR. PDF

Ybarra, M. (2011) Privatizing the Tzuultaq’a? Private property and spiritual reproduction in post-war Guatemala. Journal of Peasant Studies 38(4):793-810. Special Issue: New Frontiers of Land Control, guest edited by Nancy L. Peluso and Christian Lund. 

Recent Presentations

Ybarra, M. (2013) From Subversivo to Narcocampesino: The Politics of Crime and Conservation in Guatemala. Latin American Studies Association (LASA) International Congress; Washington, DC; May 31.

Ybarra, M. (2012) Plenary presentation. Tierra, Migración y Vida 1999-2009, Resultados Destacados. 2° Simposium Internacional de Investigación Interdisciplinaria; sponsored by Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, División Académica Multidisciplinaria de los Ríos, México; and the Universidad de San Carlos, Guatemala. Santa Elena, Petén, Guatemala; August 16.

Ybarra, M. (2012) Voting for Mano Dura? Remilitarization and Political Activism in Post-War Guatemala. Paper session: Critical Geographies of Counter-Insurgency. Annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), New York, NY; February 27.