I am a Sociocultural Anthropologist interested in globalization, development and political ecology. I examine environmental concerns in the context of social justice, using case studies to explore the evolving global imaginaries that beckon us to define environmental problems like biodiversity conservation and food security in modernist, often economistic, terms.  As an ethnographer, I witness and celebrate the mischiefs that can be worked upon these ethnocentric constructions by people who see the same issues from other cultural perspectives, shaped by grounded experience, by sociality, materiality, historicity, and by languages that affirm more-than-human kinships and affects.

Transdisciplinary engagements, including the ecological humanities and natural sciences, are vital to my work.  I have previously been a Fellow at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University, and a Fellow at the Center for Twenty-First Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

NEW COURSE! The Anthropology of Energy & Sustainability (ANTH 362)

Global visions of modernity and development were founded upon the extractive fossil fuel economy. Today, the climate emergency demands fundamental change in how cities run and how countries develop. This course explores the human dimensions of energy resource extraction, production and consumption, through the lens of ethnographic case studies from different parts of the world. We consider critical debates around energy systems and sustainability from the perspective of political ecology and climate justice, giving particular attention to the cultural and historical contexts of evolving energy frontiers.

Eating Culture (ANTH 210)

When you think of home, what does it taste like? We eat culture everyday. Foodways are a celebrated and essential part of social life. Culturally meaningful ingredients and recipes reflect upon specific ecological adaptations and histories of landscape. Our memories, identities, and sense of well-being are tied to the foods we produce, collect, prepare and share with others. While some food traditions are deeply rooted in place, others emerge from the processes of globalization, migration, innovation and change. Different cultural perspectives inform debates around food security and food sovereignty, and commitments to food system transformation. This lecture course explores case studies of culture, agriculture, food and environment in global context.

Gardens of Culture (ANTH 437)

This undergraduate seminar explores the anthropology of agriculture and food systems. Every farm and household plot is a garden of culture, producing not only the food that sustains our bodies, but also connections to family and community, relationships with nature and climate, and particular understandings of the world. These gardens of culture are deeply impacted by colonial relations, economies of scale, global transformations and rapid environmental change, yet they are also keys to survival and sustainability. Learning to understand the perspectives of food producers in their own terms—including Indigenous and rooted knowledge systems, languages, local experiences, priorities and heartfelt commitments— will help us cultivate viable multispecies futures.

Ecological Anthropology (ANTH 360)

From climate justice and food sovereignty to Standing Rock and Extinction Rebellion, today’s anthropologists engage many important debates related to culture and environment. This course introduces how we understand human ecology and environmental issues “from the bottom up”, in the context of rooted histories and living cultures. Looking at case studies of resource extraction, climate change, biodiversity conservation, agricultural adaptation, ecotourism and attempts to “green” the economy, we explore how ethnographic methods support Indigenous and local perspectives around the world, as people perceive, challenge and reshape the global processes and structural inequalities that affect them and their home places.

Anthropocene Imaginaries (Graduate Seminar)

This course explores evolving concerns around the climate and nature emergency, and considers how cultural visions and aesthetics of place in the twenty-first century are interconnected with emerging global discourses about environmental security, governance and power. Representations of culture and environment have compelling implications for human rights and Indigenous sovereignties over land, water and natural resources. Blending perspectives from the environmental humanities, STS, and anthropology, we reflect upon ethnographic approaches to political ecology and the idea of “the Anthropocene”.

My early research analyzed how powerful discourses about nature conservation can reproduce colonial and racist visions of culture and environment. Focusing on critical approaches to parks and protected areas, I looked at a contentious case on the island of Sardinia, Italy, during the period when European states sought to establish new national parks. My ethnography, Wild Sardinia, sought to complicate the global discourses of environmentalism by looking at the history of governance and development in highland Sardinia. I return there periodically to extend research on agriculture, food systems and sustainability.

I continue the critical study of biodiversity conservation at a broader scale, in relation to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. My ongoing research examines diverse cultural projects of seed banking and seed saving, including the envisioned role of agricultural science, technology and institutions in international efforts to adapt to climate change.  I consider how world food security is shaped not only by changing environments, but also by how we frame understandings, ethical commitments and collaborations we articulate in response to them.

Selected Academic Papers

2024. Heatherington, Tracey. “With Endless Articulations: Conserving Biodiversity in the Infinity Mirror” in Cambridge Journal of Anthropology 42 (1). Open access.

2021. Heatherington, Tracey. “Havens Against the Blight: Daydreaming Agriculture in the Future Past”, in Moveable Gardens: Itineraries and Sanctuaries of Memory, Virginia Nazarea and Terese Gagnon, eds., pp.199-222.  University of Arizona Press. JSTOR

2021. Heatherington, Tracey. “Fertility’s Fate: Agrarian Anxieties and the Social Life of Seeds”, in Seedways: The circulation, control and care of plants in a warmer world, Beppe Karlsson and Annika Rabo, eds. Series: Kungl. Konferenser 104, pp. 207-226. Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. Open access.

2020. Heatherington, Tracey. “Polyphony for the Ivory Tower Blues: Critical Pedagogies in Graduate Professional Development” in Collaborations: Anthropology in a Neoliberal Age, pp. 85-104. Emma Heffernan, Fiona Murphy and Jonathan Skinner, eds. Routledge. Taylor & Francis.

Selected Writing for a General Audience

2023. Heatherington, Tracey. “Unassisted Steering.” Creative Nonfiction. Special section: Hundreds for Katie. Anthropology and Humanism 48 (2): 432. Open access.

2020. Heatherington, Tracey. “Seeds” in The Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon, pp. 404-409. Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian, eds. Punctum Books. Open access.

2017. Heatherington, Tracey and Bernard C. Perley, “Fieldnotes from Svalbard: How Global Dreamings Take Root in the Arctic Frontier” Europe Now special feature on Facing the Anthropocene, Issue 7.  Open access.

Victor Turner Book Prize for Ethnographic Writing, Society for Humanistic Anthropology (AAA), 2010.

Australian Anthropology Society Best Essay Prize, 2013.

I work with students who wish to undertake independent ethnographic projects, such as case studies relevant to the climate and nature emergency, just transitions, conservation debates, new technologies and the future of sustainability and development. To assess the compatibility of research themes and approaches, it will be helpful to read some of my academic-facing work. Several of my advisees have had transdisciplinary trajectories, but prospective students should become familiar with the basic methods of Cultural Anthropology before applying to our graduate program.

My expertise is primarily centered in Western Europe, and I am excited to mentor research in this region, but I also work with those whose geographic emphasis lies elsewhere. What is important is that you should share a passion for the way ethnographic research and sincere human engagements can change the way we understand global concerns. I welcome inquiries from students with both applied and academic interests: my advisees are encouraged to prepare for multiple career paths and be proactive in professionalization.

Current students: Felix Giroux, Hilal Kina

I co-edit a book series, Critical Green Engagements: Investigating the Green Economy and its Alternatives, at the University of Arizona Press. I also serve on editorial boards for two open-access academic publications, the Journal of the Italian Society of Cultural Anthropology (ANUAC), and the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures (AJEC), as well as the Scientific Committee of SOAS GLOCAL. It is an honour to be part of these remarkable collaborations.

In spring 2021, I co-organized an interdisciplinary conference, Un/Predictable Environments: Politics, Ecology, Agency, with colleagues in Belfast and Allahabad. Thanks and funding from SSHRC and the Public Humanities Hub at UBC, our video archive and blog are available open access. Our special events, organized by an international team of fourteen students and faculty and one canine mascot, included four keynotes streamed from Delhi, Sydney, Toronto and upstate New York, film screenings, an art prize, and the launch of the Environmental Humanities Research Network at UBC.