Theo Hills (1925-2002) served 韩国裸舞 as a Professor of Geography from 1950 until his retirement in 1992. He was a pioneer in the study of sustainability and the developing world. In the mid-1950s Professor Hills helped build a research station in the Rupununis of Guyana. This eventually led to the creation of 韩国裸舞's Centre for Developing Area Studies, where he served as Associate Director and later Director. He was pivotal in the development of the Bellairs Research Institute in Barbados, Canada's only university tropical research centre. Professor Hills was also very interested in his own community; he conducted studies in Quebec's Eastern Townships and worked closely with several aboriginal communities on the issue of land claims.
To commemorate his substantial contribution, 韩国裸舞, by the initiative of the family and friends of Theo Hills, has established the Theo L. Hills Memorial Fund, an income generating endowment which helps support graduate students' field-work research in developing areas. If you would like to contribute to this initiative, you may do so over the phone by calling (514) 398-3128. You can also send a cheque payable to 韩国裸舞 (please write "Science - Theo L. Hills Memorial Fund" on the back or on the memo line). You may mail your cheque to:
Robert Davis, 韩国裸舞, 3450听University street, Frank Dawson Adams Bldg, Room 23,听Montreal , Quebec H3A 0E8
For more information, please contact Robert Davis, Director of Development at (514) 398-3128听or rob.davis [at] mcgill.ca .
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Recent Theo Hills Memorial Fund awardees:
2024, Melody Lynch
A feminist and embodied political ecology of urban cultivation in one of Asia鈥檚 leading WHO-designated Healthy Cities鈥擪uching, Malaysia
I am honoured be a recipient of the Theo Hills Memorial Award. The aim of my research is to investigate the ways by which urban agriculture in Kuching, Malaysia is imagined, motivated, practiced and experienced across lines of difference, as well as the material and political implications that result. This research aims to bridge the existing divide between social, environmental, and health research on urban agriculture to understand benefits and risks for health a multidimensional sense. I collected ethnographic data on cultivator experiences and motivations, as well as soil and plant tissue samples that I tested for lead. I also gathered spatial data on urban agriculture across the city. I analyzed my findings through the lens of feminist and embodied urban political ecologies. I worked with a local artist to create an illustrated booklet with the goal of presenting complex scientific findings in an accessible way to community members. The Theo Hills Memorial Award significantly helped me absorb some of the costs of my fieldwork and thus contributed to the success of this project.
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2023, Olivia del Giorgio
Land control dynamics in emerging agricultural frontiers in northern Argentina
In recent decades, growing commercial returns, market pressures, and policy changes have incentivized investment in the food industry, leading transnational companies to become increasingly involved in agricultural production. High inputs of capital and technology, as well as subsidies for agriculture, have allowed agribusiness to rapidly consolidate and convert large tracts of land to agriculture. Along with the ecological implications of the conversion of natural habitats to cropland, the expansion of large-scale, commodity agriculture has entailed drastic changes in the dynamics of land control and resource distribution, prominently in regions characterized by high levels of poverty and tenure insecurity. Unable to confront agribusinesses, many smallholders globally have been displaced or dispossessed as agricultural commodity frontiers have expanded outwards. Understanding the impacts of the continued expansion of agricultural commodity frontiers in all their complexity is of critical importance for the design of policies to reduce smallholder vulnerability. To do so, we must look beyond resource availability and examine changes in the norms of access that condition people鈥檚 ability to benefit from land and resources as agricultural commodity frontiers develop. Yet the spatial extent and impacts of these frontiers have been mainly assessed through a lens of land cover change (e.g., deforestation), meaning that we are missing part of the picture 鈥� on what is happening in the early stages of the development of these frontiers, when the shifts in land control that lay the groundwork for the expansion of agriculture take place.
My doctoral research focuses on this gap 鈥� looking beyond the deforestation front to understand the changes in land control happening in forested areas that are receiving speculative attention by agro-interested actors. In 2023, I spent six in working in the Chaco region of northern Argentina, examining more specifically the processes of smallholder dispossession from frontier activity that lead to the migration of families away from forest communities into rapidly urbanizing towns.
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2022, Binh N. Nguyen
Contested mobilities and livelihood-in-motion of motorbike taxi drivers in Hanoi, Vietnam
In Hanoi, the capital city of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, traditional motorbike taxis鈥攍ocally known as xe 么m鈥攈ave played an essential role as a daily mobility option for citizens and a viable livelihood for thousands of informal workers for nearly four decades. However, with the recent emergence of ride-hailing platforms, the motorbike taxi industry and this two-wheeled livelihood have undergone important digital transformations.
My PhD research at Department of Geography aims to investigate the changing livelihoods and mobilities of both traditional and app-based motorbike taxi drivers in Hanoi. In particular, my research focuses on exploring how these drivers navigate new urban infrastructures, access the city鈥檚 streets and public spaces, and cope with external livelihood shocks in a modernizing urban landscape. To achieve this, I conducted 11 months of fieldwork spanning from 2022 to 2023 in Hanoi. My fieldwork comprised of semi-structured and ride-along interviews, narrative mapping, and participant observation, carried out with motorbike taxi drivers, local policymakers and experts, ride-hailing companies, and motorbike taxi customers. Through this research, I aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of alternative pathways toward more inclusive and sustainable urbanism in the Global South.
At the beginning of my fieldwork in 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic-related social distancing measures in Hanoi had required me to explore alternatives to in-person research. This required to integrate other remote methods, including video calls, phone interviews, online surveys, and social media research. The Theo Hills Memorial Award thus provided critical supports for me to kickstart my fieldwork amid these unprecedented challenges for human geography research. These included, for example, covering additional expenses related to switching to remote research activities, or acquiring new equipment for these online interviews. Despite these challenges, my pilot interviews in 2022 enabled me to identify important and novel themes and topics, later forming the foundation for subsequent rounds of interviews. As a recipient of the Theo Hills Memorial Award, I hope my research and fieldwork contribute, in part, to its mission of supporting and promoting research in the Global South, where many pressing and contemporary issues demand comprehensive research and studies.
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2019, Jennifer Langill
From opium to oranges: Intergenerational livelihood change in a Hmong village in northern Thailand
For my dissertation, I investigated how fundamental shifts in agrarian, economic, political, and environmental contexts over three decades have impacted the livelihoods and lifeworlds of individuals and households in a rural highland Hmong village in northern Thailand. I located my study within the context of Ban Suay (pseudonym), a Hmong village of approximately 100 households in Chiang Mai Province. I chose this village as it was also the study site for an economic anthropology dissertation three decades earlier, and therefore offered me the opportunity to draw longitudinal insights.
This first stage of fieldwork in 2019 was essential for me to get acquainted with the village, seek permissions for my study, begin conducting interviews, and finalize my dissertation proposal. Over subsequent extended fieldwork in 2020 and 2023, it was also highly beneficial for me to have insights garnered from my first stage of fieldwork, helping me to identify changes in the village over the duration of my studies in addition to the longer-term changes I was identifying as well.
I would like to thank the Theo Hills Memorial Fund for supporting the first stage of fieldwork for my doctoral research. In-depth fieldwork is essential to my research, and it would not be possible without generous funding like the Theo Hills Memorial Fund.
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Former awardees:
2013, Bernard Huber
The Environmentality of Forest Conservation in two ethnic Hmong villages in Yen Bai Province, Vietnam
My PhD research is a social science study of forest conservation in Vietnam, where since the 1990s many Protected Areas have been established. As elsewhere in the developing world, national and international conservationists have paid too little attention to the livelihoods of local and indigenous peasants, often unfairly portraying them as the main culprit for forest destruction.
Therefore, I investigate how forest conservation is institutionalized and governed in the Mu Cang Chai Species and Habitat Conservation Area, as well as how the restriction of forest use has affected the subsistence livelihoods of poor peasants in two remote buffer zone villages. In addition, I seek to understand how villagers understand and comply with the forest conservation project, as such Protected Areas can only be successful if local villagers support the objectives and can derive some benefits from them. Different models of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) have been implemented around the world to compensate villagers for lost forest access and acknowledge their contribution to forest protection. Interestingly, the socialist government of Vietnam has been very proactive to pilot PES models, and villagers in my case study villages are dependent on these payments. Through this research, I hope to generate policy recommendations for sustainable forest conservation and PES in Vietnam, as well as more conceptual contributions to the nexus of conservation and development.
My fieldwork takes place in two villages in Mu Cang Chai district, Yen Bai province, in the northern highlands of Vietnam. I live in these villages for several weeks at a time and interview villagers and local officials, in addition to key informants in the district town and in the capital of Hanoi. Such village studies are very rare in Vietnam, and I am very fortunate to have gained the trust of my host institute and local officials to let me do this fieldwork. As a family father, I can only spend two months at a time in Vietnam and I am undertaking a total of six trips between November 2011 and May 2014, which is also methodologically proving very effective. Other fieldwork expenses surpass those of the airfares and include costs for local transport, food, accommodation, translators, Vietnamese language training, mandatory affiliation with my host institute, and compensation for research participants. I am very happy to have received the Theo Hills Award to absorb some of these costs and I would like to thank you very much for your generosity. The mission of the Theo L. Hills Memorial Fund to support student fieldwork in the Global South is very important, and I feel very honoured to be one of the recipients of this award.
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2012, Gillian Gregory
Shifting Livelihood Strategies and Resource Use by Ribere帽os on the Amazon Floodplain: What are the links between human migration, resource use, & conservation efforts in Peru鈥檚 Pacaya Samiria National Reserve?
My research looks at the relationships between rural-urban migration, aquatic resource management, and possibilities for conservation in the Peruvian Amazon. The first goal of my research is to identify migration patterns between rural and urban areas on the Amazon floodplain in Peru, including how and why people move. The second goal is to understand the impacts of rural-urban migration on the ways rural people use and manage natural resources in a major conservation priority area, the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.
In 2011, I visited 12 communities surrounding the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve in order to understand the frequency with which families and/or individuals migrate as well as more detailed information about their daily livelihoods in these rural areas. I also spent time in the urban centre of Iquitos, interviewing migrants from these rural communities about how their livelihoods have changed since moving to the city. This preliminary field trip allowed me to refine my study focus and select study communities, as well as establish contacts with local universities, research institutions, NGOs, and future field assistants.
This year, I will use the Theo Hills award to help support a longer period of field research in Peru. I will be working intensively in two study communities surrounding the Pacaya Samiria Reserve, as well as urban centres in and beyond the Amazon. In the rural communities, I will conduct household surveys and interviews, as well as obtain estimates of some seasonal resource harvests. In the cities, I will again conduct interviews with migrants from the communities. Ultimately I hope this research will contribute to better understanding resource management and possibilities for conservation on the Amazon floodplain, taking into account the contemporary context of frequent migration and rapid urbanization.
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2011, Bernard Huber
The Environmentality of Forest Conservation in a remote Hmong village in Y锚n B脿i Province, Vietnam
Along with its economic and political reforms of the 1990s, Vietnam implemented new programs for reforestation and forest conservation, following decades of poor forest management and rampant deforestation. To protect the remaining forest biodiversity, international conservation agencies helped establish 122 Protected Areas, which, however, have often relied on 鈥榝ences and fines鈥� and have negatively affected subsistence peasants that had traditionally relied on forest resources for their livelihoods. The Hmong are one of 30 different ethnic groups that live in Vietnam's northern highlands and were traditionally shifting cultivators and hunters.
In a remote Hmong village bordering a recently established Protected Area, my research investigates (i) how forest conservation has been instituted in this village; (ii) how villagers have adapted their livelihoods to new land-use regulations; and (iii) how villagers鈥� attitudes towards forest use and biodiversity conservation have developed. Through my ethnographic study of conservation enforcement, livelihood transitions, and environmental attitudes, I aim to contribute to our understanding of conservation conflicts, and how subsistence livelihoods can be managed sustainably.
My research requires several trips to Vietnam, 10-12 months of fieldwork in the highlands and in the national capital, Vietnamese language training, as well as the hire of both Vietnamese and Hmong interpreters. Therefore, I am very grateful for the financial contribution of this award and I sincerely respect the commitment of the Theo L. Hills Memorial Fund to help fund graduate student fieldwork in developing countries.
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2010, Sarah Wilson
Tropical cloud forest restoration: Can biodiversity and community needs be reconciled?
My research looks at how and why NGO-led reforestation projects affect rural livelihoods, forest use, and tree and orchid diversity in cloud forests in the Andes of Northwest Ecuador. Over the last two decades, local and international NGOs have initiated several community restoration projects in this region, largely to protect the high levels of endemism and biodiversity found there. In May and June 2010, I used the Theo Hills award to visit seven farming communities in this region where farmers are reforesting land on either community reserves or private land. In these communities I ran听focus groups and interviewed farmers to learn more about past and present forest use, reforestation techniques, and farming practices. During this time I stayed with farming families, worked with local field assistants, and learned a great deal simply through informal interactions with people in the community.
I used the information from this preliminary field trip to refine my research questions and methods to suit the region and individual communities. In addition, during this visit I established contacts with local research institutions and herbariums, local researchers, and future field assistants. I will return to each of these communities in 2011 to conduct household surveys, measure forest diversity in restored and natural forests, and study forest cover change in the region using remote sensing. Ultimately, I hope my research will add nuance to some common oversimplifications about forest restoration. I also hope it will help guide community forest restoration efforts in two ways: by helping people prioritize when to use tree planting to restore forests instead of natural regeneration; and by looking at how reforestation affects local people, so that the negative impacts can be minimized and the positive elements emphasized in future restoration projects.
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2009. Catrina MacKenzie
Perceived benefits and losses of living near the Kibale National Park, Uganda.
My research aims to answer the question; 鈥楩or the people living in communities that directly border Kibale National Park, Uganda, do benefits and losses accrued as a result of the existence of the national park, affect their conservation attitudes and behaviours?鈥櫶齌his requires creating an inventory of the perceived benefits and losses accrued in 25 villages located directly adjacent to the park.听These benefits and losses will then be correlated with physically measured levels of illegal resource extraction inside the park near each village.听
In 2008-9 my Ugandan field assistants and I ran focus groups and carried out household surveys in the 25 study villages to understand what the primary benefits and losses are that local people accrue as a result of the existence of the park.听Benefits included higher levels of rainfall close to the park, perceived as a significant benefit for farming, and the revenue sharing program in which 20% of park entrance fees are shared with local communities for infrastructure, crop raiding defense and income generating projects.听The primary loss was destruction of their crops by wild animals, especially elephants that live in the park and then raid local village gardens for food.听This year, my Theo Hills award will be used to hire a local person in each of the 25 villages to record and document crop raiding incidents so that the magnitude of the crop raiding problem can be determined for my research, but also to make crop raiding visible to local authorities and to determine the most affected villages.听This knowledge may help the Ugandan Wildlife Authority and local government officials to plan and fund crop raiding defenses such as elephant trenches
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2008. Elizabeth Heller
Agricultural intensification and landscape structure in the Malaprabha watershed, Karnataka, India
My research is focused on the relationships between farming practices and landscape structure, in the context of agricultural intensification in southern India. Over the past forty years, agricultural intensification in the Malaprabha watershed in Karnataka state, India, has been accompanied by increased irrigation and major changes to crop rotations.听At the same time, average farm size has been declining in the area, possibly affecting elements of landscape structure, such as field size. The relationships between field size and farming practices may have important implications concerning the impacts of agricultural intensification on ecosystem services.
My research will use multiple, Landsat-type satellite images to map land use in the watershed in 2007, differentiating between major crop groups and between irrigated and non-irrigated areas.听Extensive ground-truthing will be used to support the remote sensing data.听Additionally, high-resolution imagery and interviews with farmers will be used to investigate the relationships between farming practices, field size and ecosystem services, as indicated by the number of trees and hedgerows in the landscape. I hope my research furthers understanding of the important interactions between farming practices, landscape diversity, and farmer livelihoods, which will potentially have implications for the ultimate stability and vulnerability of these changing agro-ecosystems.
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2007. Maro Adjemian
Medicinal Plant protection and deforestation in rural Zambia
During the summer of 2007, I spent just over three months in rural Zambia completing fieldwork for my Masters degree. After landing in Lusaka, Zambia鈥檚 capital, I made my way to the Bilili Game Management Area, located within Zambia鈥檚 southern province.听The Game Management Area (or GMA) is a buffer area bordering Kafue National Park.听Located on the Central African plateau, it is an area of 鈥渕iombo woodland鈥�, or dry, deciduous forest. Since the early 1980s there has been a steady influx of migration into the area as people came looking for agricultural land, which has resulted in deforestation. Previous research in the region found that cleared land more than doubled between 1986 and 2000.听My research looked at the impact of this ongoing deforestation on medicinal plant availability and use in the region.
While in the field, I lived with a local family. I worked with translators for interviews, as most of the local population speaks only the regional ethnic language. I spoke both to people locally viewed as medicinal plant 鈥渆xperts鈥� (often traditional healers), and to community members, both men and women.听Through these interviews I explored the impact of deforestation on the availability of commonly used medicinal species, 70% of which are trees.听I also investigated the extent to which local people use medicinal plants as a method of health care, and the indigenous knowledge that people have regarding uses of medicinal plant species. To my surprise, I found that the significant deforestation taking place in the area has a limited impact on medicinal plant availability, mostly due to the traditional management systems local people employ to keep commonly used forest resources readily available.听Since medicinal plant species are important both culturally and as the most accessible form of health care in the region, people protect these species as they clear their land.听My fieldwork in the region offered me both valuable academic experience, and the opportunity to experience life in a rural Zambian village. I am very thankful for the funding I received that enabled me to conduct research in this area.
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