PhD Candidate I am a doctoral student in the cultural anthropology program and part of the Community and Environment Lab supervised by Dr. Peter Brosius. I am also working toward a Graduate Certificate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and am broadly committed to exploring the intersection of environmental issues and indigenous culture in South America. More specifically, my doctoral research examines how indigenous knowledge and ontologies of nature shape community-based conservation. I work in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the indigenous Kichwa Nation of Pastaza who are collectively managing their rainforest territory as a protected area. In 2022, I received a Fulbright Program Fellowship and a National Science Foundation grant to conduct twelve months of fieldwork in Ecuador. My fieldwork research revolves around exploring how diverse environmental perspectives are negotiated by community members in order to collectively manage and represent “The Living Forest,” an Indigenous Community Conserved Area (ICCA) managed by the Kichwa people of the community of Sarayaku and supported by the Kichwa Nation. My project pays particular attention to local conceptualizations of the rainforest environment and how such notions help or hinder community decision-making processes related to territorial governance and political representation. Research Research Areas: Cultural Anthropology Selected Publications Selected Publications: Lightsey, Louisiana. In Submission. “Indigenous Conservation as Environmental Justice: Relationality and Marketization in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” Latin American Research Review. Lightsey, Louisiana. 2017. “Prefigurative Politics.” Global South Studies: A Collective Publication with The Global South. https://globalsouthstudies.as.virginia.edu/ Lightsey, Louisiana. 2017. “Biopolitics and Globalization.” Global South Studies: A Collective Publication with The Global South. https://globalsouthstudies.as.virginia.edu/ Grants Grants: 2022 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, funded by the National Science Foundation. Awarded $12,275 for 6 months of dissertation fieldwork in Ecuador. 2022 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Awarded $27,443 for 12 months of dissertation fieldwork in Ecuador. 2021 Tinker Foundation Graduate Field Research Award, funded by the Tinker Foundation. Awarded $1,050 for research-related expenses. 2020 Tinker Foundation Graduate Field Research Award, funded by the Tinker Foundation. Awarded $1,250 for research-related expenses. 2020 Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant, funded by the Graduate School, University of Georgia. Awarded $1,650 for research-related expenses. 2019 Janelle Padgett Knight Graduate Award, Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, University of Georgia. Award given to the top-ranking recipient of the Willson Center’s Graduate Research Award. 2019 Graduate Research Award, funded by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, University of Georgia. Awarded $1,049 to cover the costs of presenting a paper at an international conference. 2018 Tinker Foundation Graduate Field Research Award, funded by the Tinker Foundation. Awarded $1,100 for research-related travel expenses. 2018 Foreign Language and Area Studies Summer Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Awarded $7,500 to study Amazonian Kichwa language in Ecuador. 2018-2021 Foreign Language and Area Studies Academic Year Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Awarded $75,000 total to support five years (Fall 2018-Spring 2022) of Amazonian Kichwa language courses. Education Education: M.A. Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, University of Arizona. 2016. B.A. Spanish, Portland State University. 2013. B.A. Arts & Letters, Prescott College. 2005. _
