Gustavo Garcia-Lopez

Woodburn Hall 210
855-6308 (phone)
855-2027 (fax)
ggarcial@indiana.edu

   Gustavo is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is pursuing a joint Ph.D. in Public Policy and Political Science with concentrations in Public Policy, Environmental Policy, and Political Theory & Methodology. He received his Masters in Environmental Policy from Cambridge University and his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Geography from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

Gustavo’s research interests are on the relationship between institutions, power, and social mobilization in community-based natural resource management, co-management, and other forms of grassroots organization. More broadly, he is interested on the multiple topics of sustainable development. His dissertation focuses on the role that inter-community organizations (ICOs) play in community forestry in two Mexican states, Durango and Guerrero. This will be done through a comparative case study of communities that are participating in ICOs and communities that are not, using a combination of ethnographic, interview, and quantitative methods.

Gustavo’s dissertation committee is composed of political science professors Dr. Elinor Ostrom (chair), Dr. Michael McGinnis, and Dr. Armando Razo, SPEA professor Dr. Burnell Fischer, and anthropology professor Dr. Catherine Tucker. UC-Berkeley researcher Dr. Camille Antinori serves as external advisor.

After completing his doctoral degree, Gustavo hopes to pursue a career in teaching, research, and consulting work for environmental and community organizations, through which he hopes to foster a better understanding of central problems of sustainable grassroots development in Latin America, and contribute to designing policies that adequately address them.