Maira Irigaray is the 2021 M. Schmink Outstanding Dissertation Award Recipient!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Maíra Irigaray is the 2021 winner of the Marianne Schmink Outstanding Dissertation Award from UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program. Dr. Irigaray received her PhD in Geography in Fall 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Cynthia Simmons. The outstanding dissertation award was established in 2010 in recognition of Dr. Marianne Schmink, former Director of the TCD Program for her significant and transformative contributions to graduate education in the Center for Latin American Studies and in the TCD Program.

Dr. Irigaray’s dissertation is entitled “Resistance, Global Justice and Protection of Indigenous Territories in the Amazon: The Ipereğ Ayũ Movement and the Munduruku Indigenous People”.  Her dissertation research exemplifies TCD’s goals to bridge theory and practice as she examined indigenous resistance in the Amazon with a focus on the Munduruku as they struggle to protect their lands and ways of life.

Click here to read the complete announcement!