TCD & MDP Forum: Documenting Socio – Economic – Ecological Collapse in Rural Honduras

If you missed Becky William’s talk, click here to watch the recording.

Thursday, Oct 10 @9:30 am in Grinter 471

The “migration crisis” in the US has governments, development organizations, and the public in an uproar over what is causing the migration, who is at fault, and what should be done about it. In this talk, Dr. Williams will present preliminary findings from new research ion systems relationship between food insecurity, climate change, youth unemployment, the perceived value of education, epistemic violence, masculinities, the breakdown of community, and how these issues are resulting in migration as a primary livelihood strategy. She will explore how this is occurring within the context of weak and corrupt government institutions, extreme poverty, and powerful gang and narcotrafficking. The three qualitative case studies that will be presented illustrate the dominant issues that are reflected on a wide scale in the five municipalities for the study and point to the connection between social, economic, and ecological collapse as the driving force behind transnational migration from rural Honduras.

Dr. Rebecca J. (Becky) Williams’ research has two primary focuses including the connections between climate change, violence, and migration; and gender and participatory development with a focus on natural resources and indigenous communities. Dr. Williams is an Assistant Research Scientist with the Office for Global Research Engagement and the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems at the University of Florida. Dr. Williams also teaches as adjunct faculty in the Center for Latin American Studies and frequently guest lectures in the Master of Sustainable Development Practice program. Dr. Williams holds an M.S. from Florida State University in Instructional Systems Design and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Interdisciplinary Ecology with a focus on Tropical Conservation and Development.