Rebecca M. Torres

Research In Geography

After many decades of scholarship that virtually ignored gender, scholars increasingly have come to recognize the highly gendered nature of migration and its multiple outcomes.  Gender analysis is critical to migration studies, not only because of the gendered nature of mobility and labor, but also because it is the key social construct upon which we organize our lives and society.  Men and women experience, negotiate, reconstitute, enact and respond to migration in deeply different ways, even within the same family and community. Understanding these differences, across multiple scales in diverse places, is important to gauge the uneven impacts of migration.  In this course we seek to:  1) discern the distinct forms  in which men and women experience, negotiate, resist, enact and adapt to migration and current neoliberal practices often underlying (im)mobilities, as well as the sources of these differences; 2) comprehend how migration has unevenly reshaped various facets of life for immigrants and their families –  such as material accumulation and consumption, desires, aspirations, division of labor, mobility,  power relations, responsibilities, inclusion, exclusion and identity across gender, place and scale; 4) To examine, critically, current migration and development discourse and policy in light of the  specificities and differences of  place, scale, gender and race/ethnicity in envisaging future alternatives.

This course focuses on contemporary transformations in global gender and  migration from an interdisciplinary social science perspective, but with a strong emphasis on the work of feminist geographers.  In particular feminist geographies of migration pay close attention to dimensions such as the spatialities and social constructions of power; the politics of scale; gender divisions of mobility and labor; geographies of responsibility and care; critical theorizations of space and place; indentities; emotion and affect; situated knowledges, among others.  We will approach topics through a variety of methods including critical readings of academic, ethnographic and more popular texts; seminar discussions (both instructor and student facilitated); in-class and  student research paper presentations.  To illustrate current trends and processes we will examine case studies from different parts of the globe, however the course will have a heavy Latin America/US migration orientation.

Farming, Food & Global Hunger

This course focuses on contemporary transformations in global agro-food systems from a social science perspective. Employing an interdisciplinary approach, we will explore recent changes in agricultural production, markets, networks and consumption in both industrialized and developing nations. We will seek to unravel the current paradox of growing global disparities, that is, why more people are going hungry in the world while obesity has reached a historical high – threatening to shorten life expectancies (unprecedented in the era of modern medical science).  Globalization, particularly the tensions between the “global” and “local” will be an overarching theme threaded throughout the course.  In particular, we will examine the contentious nature and contradictions embedded within “agricultural development,” – particularly processes of “modernization” and the neoliberalization of agricultural policy, development, trade, consumption and desires.  We seek to comprehend these global processes, but also to explore them at a local level to understand the “real life” human dimensions of transformation in agricultural and food systems.  We will also examine new alternative approaches to addressing some of the challenges and contradictions in agro-food systems including – organic farming, local food movements, community supported agriculture, fair trade, ethical consumption, producer organization and alternative sustainable development. 

In our analysis of agro-food restructuring we will examine key current issues and debates from a variety of perspectives and points of view.  Topics will include:  the “green revolution” and its socio-economic impacts; the genetic engineering debate; hunger and inequality; biofuels and global food crisis; food safety and nutrition; the politics of food aid; neoliberal agrarian policies and smallholders; farm labor and social justice; land reform; the sustainable agriculture movement; agriculture and the environment; gender and agriculture; farm labor issues; and vertical integration and the loss of the family farm, among others.  To illustrate current trends and processes we will examine case studies from different parts of the globe including: southeastern US, California, Iowa, Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba and China, among others.  We will approach topics through a variety of methods including critical readings of academic, ethnographic and more popular texts; seminar discussions (both instructor and student facilitated); in-class projects & activities; invited guest speakers; films and student research paper presentations.

Tourism, Poverty & Development

Tourism is the world’s largest transnational industry and one of the fastest growing economic sectors. Globalization has created significant opportunities for the expansion of tourism to even the most remote corners of the planet.  This global phenomenon has the power to generate foreign exchange earnings, attract international investment, increase tax revenues, create employment, and stimulate local economies in both industrialized and the developing nations. In most instances, realizing this potential involves the commodification of “place” and “space” for tourist mass consumption. Through a process of institutionalization and standardization, physical and cultural capital is packaged and transformed into “tourist spectacles” for the “tourist gaze.”  The economic, social, cultural and environmental landscapes of host destinations are, as a consequence, profoundly transformed.  Tourism has a multitude of impacts, both positive and negative, on people's lives and the environment they inhabit. With increased globalization, tourism is now undergoing a process of diversification and specialization.  Increasingly, we see the emergence of new forms of Post-Fordist tourism (nature tourism, ethnic tourism, adventure tourism, etc.) as an alternative to “Fordist” mass tourism.  There is also a trend for more “environmental” friendly and socially just forms of tourism such as “sustainable tourism,” “responsible tourism,”  “ecotourism,” and “volunteer tourism.”

Tourism is increasingly being targeted by both industrialized and developing nations as a strategy for economic development.  Development agencies are, for instance, advocating “pro-poor strategies” to harness tourism for poverty alleviation.  Pro-poor tourism seeks to enhance the positive impacts of tourism while reducing the costs tourism can place on the poor.   The objectives of this course include to: 1) Critically analyze tourism as a mechanism for economic and community development, and poverty reduction; 2) Examine the social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts of tourism development; and 3) Analyze various strategies to minimize negative impacts and maximize benefits of tourism development.  We will approach topics through a variety of methods, including: critical readings of academic and applied texts; in-class discussions, projects & activities; invited guest speakers; films; and student presentations.   Texas’ tourism resources and potential will be our “living laboratory.”  Students will do an individual participant observation research project of a tourism site/circumstance of their choice.  Upon completion of the course, students will understand: 1) the problems and potential associated with employing tourism as a mechanism for community and economic development; 2) how different forms of tourism transform economic, social, cultural and environmental landscapes across the globe; 3) what are some different strategies for maximizing tourism benefits while minimizing costs.

This course focuses on "indigenously developed" and what used to be call "traditional" farming methods and techniques. Such practices are those not dependent on either fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers, or other external inputs, and hence have been called "Low extenal-input techonolgies" (LEIT). Based on "indigenous technical knowledge" (ITK), they are typically small in scale, involving for the most part the labor of individuals, families, and communities. Emphasis is placed on those systems most commonly used in various parts of the world today and in times past

Agriculture is treated here as the transformation of biophysical, sometimes referred to inappropriately as "natural," environments, into "cultural" environments. It is assessed in regard to both the plants cultivated (crops), and the soil, slope, moisture, and temperature conditions that exist and those that are either modified or created by farmers. The processes involved in the domestication of both crops and landscapes are discussed. Ecological and systematic approaches are taken in order to understand how different agricultural strategies insure continual long-term productivity and stability similar to that characteristic of environments that are not cultivated. Microeconomics is all-important.

The various "agro-ecosystems" are also discussed as economic activities that have highly visible spatial manifestations that result in distinctive "landscapes," and as activities that are dynamic, changing continuously. Development is treated conceptually as a specific type of change, not necessarily as a goal. It is envisaged as improvement in land productivity.  It is the opposite of land degradation. Agricultural features such as terraces and canals are considered "landesque capital." Social, political, and cultural aspects of agriculture and development are not topics dealt with here.

This is not a "how to" course for tree-hugging, granola-eating acolytes of John Muir who wish to remold the world into some unrealistic utopia. It is not intended for students who, like Kinky Friedman, went to Borneo to teach agriculture to people who'd been farming successfully for 2000 years. This course is not about developing "sustainable agriculture," per se.  It does, however, deal with issues of concern in the field of sustainability science, and is intended for students who wish to gain a better understanding of the complexity of human-environment interactions, particularly as they pertain to people feeding themselves.