Anna Laing

I am a Human Geographer and my primary research interest lies in understanding the role of contentious politics in shaping development agendas in the Global South. Much of my research has focused on indigenous and environmental politics with an emphasis on Latin America, particularly in relation to resource conflicts.

I received my BA (Hons) and MA degrees in Geography from the University of Sheffield. My postgraduate work focused on the anti-consumerist movement ‘freeganism’ in New York, USA, and across the UK. I then studied for my PhD in Geography at the University of Glasgow (2010-2015), which explored a contemporary Left-indigenous movement that formed in resistance to the Bolivian government’s proposal to build a road through an indigenous territory and national park, known as the TIPNIS.

On joining the University of Sussex in 2016, I have continued my research on resource struggles in Latin America. Most recently, I have been working alongside Lauren Crabb at Coventry University on a project investigating how to build resilience capacity of riverine communities in the Pantanal Wetlands, Brazil, in response to environmental hazards such as small-scale hydroelectric dams (with financial support from the Newton Fund).