Jerry K. Jacka
Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Oregon, 2003
Research
Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of Oregon, 2003
Research
I am an environmental anthropologist and my work focuses on international development, globalization, and natural resource management. My primary field site is in the Porgera valley of
highlands Papua New Guinea where I have investigated Porgeran people’s engagements with large-scale gold mining and the ensuing social and ecological changes stemming from resource extraction and economic development. I also have a long term project in this area on indigenous environmental knowledge and resource management and how religious conversion to Christianity influences ecological ideas and practices. More recently I have started work in East and West Africa on conservation and the development of export-oriented agricultural programs.
Teaching
I teach courses in both cultural and environmental anthropology at the undergraduate and graduate levels. My classes generally explore various anthropological topics through a blend of ethnography, theory, and methodology. At the undergraduate level I offer Environmental Anthropology, Ecology and Cosmology, The Anthropology of Development and Globalization, Cultures of the Pacific, and Native North Americans. At the graduate level, I teach seminars in Ecological Anthropology, Anthropological Theory, and Ecological and Environmental Methodologies.
Representative Publications
2009 - Jacka, Jerry K. “Global Averages, Local Extremes: The Subtleties and Complexities of Climate Change in Papua New Guinea,” in Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions, pp. 197-208. S. Crate and M. Nuttall, eds. Walnut Grove, CA: Left Coast Press.
2007 - Jacka, Jerry K. "Whitemen, the Ipili, and the City of Gold: A History of the Politics of Race and Development in Highlands New Guinea." Ethnohistory. 54(3):445-471.
2007 - Jacka, Jerry K. “’Our Skins are Weak’: Ipili Modernity and the Demise of Discipline,” in Embodying Modernity and Postmodernity: Ritual, Praxis, and Social Change in Melanesia, pp. 39-67. S. Bamford, ed. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
2005 - Jacka, Jerry K. "Emplacement and Millennial Expectations in an Era of Development and Globalization: Heaven and the Appeal of Christianity among the Ipili." American Anthropologist 107(4):643-653.
