Dr. Claudia Radel

Biography

Dr. Radel joined Utah State University in 2005, after receiving her Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University. Her research explores the changing nature of natural resource-based livelihood strategies for individuals, households, and communities in the rural Global South. She is interested particularly in how gender ideologies and practices relate to livelihood strategies and land-use and environmental change. Her research also examines the gendered nature of resource access, control, and decision-making. Current projects include (1) research on gender, conservation, and agriculture in communities surrounding Mexico's Calakmul Biosphere Reserve; and (2) research on labor out-migration and its relationship to climate change and land access in Central America. In 2011, she was awarded a CAREER research grant by the National Science Foundation.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Radel worked as a community development consultant in Barranquilla, Colombia. She holds a Master's in Public Affairs and a Certificate in Science, Technology, Environment, and Policy from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, where she studied international development. She received her Bachelor's degree from Brown University, with a dual concentration in Environmental Studies and Comparative Development Studies. Dr. Radel has spent time living and working in various countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, including a year attending the University of Zimbabwe as a Rotary Scholar in a graduate program in tropical resource ecology. More recently, she co-led the development of university curricula on climate change for a consortium of universities in Southeast Asia, serving as a gender and environmental social science expert.