Christine Folch is assistant professor of cultural anthropology and assistant professor of environmental sciences and policy at Duke University. Folch is a scholar of energy politics, natural resources, and environment in Latin America, with a focus on how cultural values around nature get drawn into power struggles, national identities, and history. Her book Hydropolitics: The Itaipu Dam, Sovereignty, and the Engineering of Modern South America shows how electricity is tied up with politics and sovereignty in Brazil and Paraguay. As part of her research on cuisine, culture, and history, Folch has written on yerba mate, the stimulating beverage popular in South America, and on its lesser-known but equally delightful caffeinated North American cousin, yaupon.
Her project, “The Crucible of Climate Change: Sustainable Development Solutions from the Global South,” studies Paraguayan social entrepreneurs as they tackle the challenge of balancing development and poverty alleviation with protecting the environment by generating creative, locally embedded solutions.
