Matthew J. Taylor

Degrees

2003 PhD, geography, Arizona State University
1996 MS, geography, Louisiana State University
1993 BS, geography and Spanish, Louisiana State University

Research Interests

I focus on human-environment relationships in Latin America. I spend as much time in Latin America as my teaching schedule permits. My interests in human-environment relationships in Latin America run the range of geographical inquiry. For example, I examine the impacts of rural electrification on firewood consumption, how migration to the United States changes land use practices and ownership patterns on Guatemala's frontiers, how forty years of civil war impacted the environment, how community cohesion (social capital) influences resource use, the interplay of human population dynamics and biodiversity, long-term (14,000 years) human modification of the environment in highland Guatemala, and water resource management on evolving frontiers. My teaching interests match my diverse research interests. I love to be in the field in rural Latin America. I encourage students who want to undertake research in Latin America to pop into my office for an exchange of ideas.

Recent Publications

Taylor, M.J. 2011. Viviendo en "Aquellos Tiempos" en Ixcán, Guatemala: La Violencia y la Vida en las PAC. Mesoamérica, 53: 157-188.

Taylor, M.J., Moran-Taylor, M.J., Castellanos, E., and Elias, S. 2011. Burning for Sustainability: Biomass Energy, International Migration, and the Move to Cleaner Fuels in Guatemala. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101 (4): 918-928.

Taylor, M.J., and Steinberg, M.K. 2011. Controlling People and Space, in, Jordana Dymand Karl Offen (Eds.) Mapping Latin America, University of Chicago Press.

Moran-Taylor M.J., and Taylor, M.J. 2010. Land and Leña:  Linking Transnational Migration, Natural Resources and the Environment. Population and Environment, 32:198-215.

Taylor, M.J. 2009. Student Learning Through Doing in Guatemala: An Untenured Faculty Person's Perspective on International Service Learning and Public Good. Journal of Geography, 108 (3):132-140.

Steinberg, M.K. and Taylor, M.J. 2009 The Direct and Indirect Impacts of Population Growth and Economic Development on Maize (Zea Mays L.) Diversity in Highland Guatemala. Area, 41(1): 72-81.