Riley Ravary
Research Engagement Program Lead
In the News:
- Research Feature: Riley Ravary, UF Center for African Studies, 5/14/2018
- Spotlight on New Programs and Communications Officer, UF Center for African Studies, 8/21/2017
Photo Gallery
Riley Ravary received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Florida. She worked with the Center for African Studies and Tropical Conservation and Development Program.
Riley received a Fulbright-Hays DDRA grant to do research in Uganda for her dissertation.
Riley giving her talk on establishing lines of exclusion through boundary (re)making in a transboundary protected area. Photo Credit: University of Florida.
Riley presenting on how government (via rangers) in Ugandas’s Mt Elgon National Park “militarized” conservation in moving land boundaries which disadvantaged land owners – even destroying crops on ‘reclassified’ lands. Photo and Caption Credit: Rachel Skubel.
Dr. Ravary is a cultural anthropologist interested in environmental justice, political ecology, and the governance of natural resources and the environment. As Research Engagement Program Lead with CIGLR’s ECO Program, Dr. Ravary supports ongoing efforts to facilitate connections between CIGLR scientists and communities in the Great Lakes region. Her past research at University of Florida focused on lived experiences of environmental governance and natural resource conservation in indigenous, resource dependent communities neighboring Mount Elgon National Park in Uganda.
Education:
- Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology, University of Florida, 2022
- M.A. Cultural Anthropology, University of Florida, 2016
- B.S. Anthropology, Michigan State University, 2014
- B.S. Zoology, Michigan State University, 2014
Research Interest/Area of Expertise:
- Environmental & political anthropology
- Environmental protection & protected areas
- Conservation & natural resource management
- Impacts of environmental governance on local communities
- Environmental justice
- Environmental governance
- Political economy of governance & political ecology
- Environmental institutions (rules)
- Governmental organizations & the state apparatus
Publications:
Day, Christopher, Moreto, William and Riley Ravary. 2022. “Ranger / Soldier: Patterns of Militarizing Conservation in Uganda.” Journal of East African Studies. In Review.
Ravary, Riley. 2022. The Forest for the Trees: State Logics and Environmental Protection in Uganda. Doctoral dissertation, University of Florida. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.
Michigan State University. 2013. Africa in Pictures: The Half That Has Not Been Told. Lansing: Capital Imaging, Print. (Photo published)
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Presentations:
“The Forest for the Trees: State Logics and Environmental Protection in Uganda,” Paper presented at the Tropical Conservation and Development Program Tropilunch Seminar Series, University of Florida, April 2022.
“The Resource State: Re-examining the Idea of the State Through Environmental Protection,” Paper presented at the Anthropology and Conservation Conference, Royal Anthropological Institute, October 2021.
“Evergreen: Territorialization and Boundary Governance at a Transboundary Protected Area,” Paper presented at the Center for African Studies, Institutions and the State in Africa Working Group, University of Florida, January 2020.