Jamon Halvaksz
Associate Professor, Graduate Advisor of Record for the PhD program, Anthropology
Bio
I am an academic anthropologist by training, a research and teaching professor by profession, and an activist at heart. As an environmental and economic anthropologist, I am especially drawn to context of development and change where competing values of nature and resource management practices are at play. Such occasions afford us the opportunity to both engage theoretical debates within anthropology and address issues of great importance to the affected communities. I believe that ethnographic understandings of what is at stake can inform both policy and intellectual debates that are central to social and environmental sciences, and the lives of the people with whom we work.While grounded in a commitment to long-term fieldwork among Biangai speakers along the Upper Bulolo River of Papua New Guinea, my research focuses on the historical and contemporary politics of nature in a context of competing resource management regimes. My work thus far is directed toward interventions in contemporary theory and practice highlighting 1) indigenous ideas of place and development and 2) the neoliberal practices of extraction. I am especially interested in the impact of climate change on extractive industries and rural-urban interrelationships.
Research Interests
- Conservation
- Mining
- Agriculture
- Climate Change
Degrees
- (2005) Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
- (1998) M.A. Anthropology, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
- (1994) B.A. Anthropology and French (with honors), University of Kentucky
Honors and Awards
- Outstanding Graduate Advisor of Record, College of Liberal and Fine Arts, awarded by the Graduate School at UTSA, 2021
- President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching Excellence, Tenured Faculty recipient, 2018
- Post-Ph.D. Research Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation, 2013
- Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation, 2001
- Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation, 2001
Presentations
- ‘The Dry Season of Mining Labor.’ As part of the session, Dealing with Double Exposure: Extractive Capitalism and Climate Change in the Pacific.
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Organzier: Emilka Skrzypek and Nick Bainton
- Location: Kona, Hawaii
- Presentation Date: February, 2023
- ‘Conflict Reenacted, or a Conflicted Reenactment: Portraying resource disputes.’ As part of the informal session, Every Picture Tells a Story: The Multimodalities of Images.
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Organzier: David Lipse
- Location: Kona, Hawaii.
- Presentation Date: February, 2023
- Collecting the Multiverse
- Venue: Gallary Talk
- Sponsor: San Antonio Museum of Art
- Location: San Antonio Texas
- Presentation Date: 2022
- Superheroes as Supermyths
- Venue: San Antonio Museum of Art Lecture Series
- Sponsor: San Antonio Museum of Art
- Location: San Antonio Texas
- Presentation Date: 2022
- Climate Change and Agriculture in Morobe Province
- Venue: Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Annual Meeting
- Sponsor: Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Location: Portland Oregon
- Presentation Date: 2022
- More-than-human Infrastructures
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK
- Sponsor: Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK
- Location: On-line
- Presentation Date: 2021
- Placepersons: Places that Relate through Work and Migration in Papua New Guinea
- Venue: Va Moana: Space and Relationality in Pacific Thought and Identity
- Sponsor: University of Auckland
- Location: Auckland New Zealand, Honolulu Hawaii and virtual
- Presentation Date: 2021
- Intense Places: Affect in Biangai Photography
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Sponsor: ASAO
- Location: Hilo, Hawaii
- Presentation Date: 2020
- Discussion of "Gardens of Gold: Placemaking in Papua New Guinea"
- Venue: Cultural Anthroplogy Class
- Sponsor: Dept of Anthropology, Columbia University
- Location: Virtual, New York, New York
- Presentation Date: 2020
- Media and Anthropology
- Venue: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
- Sponsor: Galen University of Belize
- Location: Virtual
- Presentation Date: 2020
- Intense Places: Affect in Biangai Photography
- Venue: Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania Annual Meeting
- Sponsor: Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Location: Hilo, Hawaii
- Presentation Date: 2020
- Gardens of Relations: Mapping Belonging to the Land
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the American Anthropology Association
- Sponsor: American Anthropology Association
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Presentation Date: 2019
- The Anthropology of Superheroes
- Venue: Gallary Talk
- Sponsor: San Antonio Museum of Art
- Location: San Antonio, Texas
- Presentation Date: 2019
- Intense Places: Affect in Biangai Photography
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Sponsor: ASAO
- Location: New Orleans
- Presentation Date: 2018
- Mining Nature, Mining Culture
- Venue: Ecology and Culture University Seminar
- Sponsor: Columbia University
- Location: New York, New York
- Presentation Date: 2017
- Superheroes and Supermyths: Towards an Anthropology of our Multiverse
- Venue: The Carol S. Franklin Social Science Speaker Series
- Sponsor: Cuyahoga Community College
- Location: Cleveland, Ohio
- Presentation Date: 2017
- Biangai responses to the 2015 El Nino
- Venue: Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania, Annual Meeting
- Sponsor: Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Location: Kauai, Hawai'i
- Presentation Date: 2017
- Knowing the Forest: Biangai Guides and Scientists
- Venue: American Anthropology Association
- Presentation Date: 2016
- Yams and Gold: Order, Entropy and Biangai Relations with Nature
- Venue: American Anthropology Association Annual Meeting
- Sponsor: American Anthropology Association
- Location: Denver
- Presentation Date: 2015
- Discussion of Jurassic Park
- Venue: Barnard Film discussion series
- Sponsor: Barnard University
- Location: New York, New York
- Presentation Date: 2015
- Agricultural Sovereignty in Morobe
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association Of Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Sponsor: Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Presentation Date: 2015
- Becoming Farmers: Agriculture and Industrial Gold Mining in Papua New Guinea
- Venue: Guest Lecture Series
- Sponsor: Department of Anthropology, UT-Austin
- Location: Austin, Texas
- Presentation Date: 2014
- The Wau Ecology Institute and the Knowledge Economy
- Venue: Annual meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Sponsor: ASAO
- Location: Kona Hawai'i
- Presentation Date: 2014
- Naturalist Histories, Making Nature in Oceania
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Location: San Antonio
- Presentation Date: 2013
- People, Places and Time in Biangai photography. Symposium
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Sponsor: ASAO
- Location: San Antonio
- Presentation Date: 2013
- ‘’We Practice What We Preach’: The Rise and Fall of the Wau Ecology Institute.’ Workshop
- Venue: Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania
- Sponsor: ASAO
- Location: San Antonio
- Presentation Date: 2013
Publications
- 2021 Halvaksz, Jamon. ‘Environmental Anthropology.’ In, The Sage Handbook of Cultural Anthropology. L. Pedersen and L. Clingett (eds.). Sage Publishing.
- 2020 Halvaksz, Jamon. Gardens of Gold: Place-Making in Papua New Guinea. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
- 2015 Halvaksz, Jamon. ‘Forests of Gold: From Mining to Logging (and Back Again).’ In, Forests of Oceania: Environmental Histories, Present Concerns and Future Possibilities. J. Bell, P. West, and C. Filer (eds). Australian National University Press.
- 2013 Halvaksz, Jamon. ‘Mining the Forest: Epical and Novelesque Boundaries along the Upper Bulolo’ In Uncomfortable Bedfellows?: Exploring the Contradictory Natures of the Ecotourism/Extraction Nexus. N. Davidov and B. Buscher (eds). Routledge.
- 2013 Halvaksz, Jamon. ‘The Taste of Public Places: Terroir in Papua New Guinea’s emerging nation.’ Anthropological Forum 23(2):142-157
- 2010 ‘The Photographic Assemblage: Duration, history and photography in Papua New Guinea.’ Anthropology and History 21(4): 411-429.
- 2009 Lipset, David and Jamon Halvaksz. ‘Smoke as Mirror: Marijuana and Representations of the Nation in Pacific Newspapers.’ Ethnology 48(2): 119-138 [issue delayed by journal, published in August 2010]
- 2008 ‘Photographing Spirits: Indigenous Photography, Ancestors and the Environment in Papua New Guinea.’ As part of a special issue, Haunting Images: The affective power of photography. Ben Smith and Richard Vokes, Guest Editors. Visual Anthropology 21(4): 310-326.
- 2008 Halvaksz, Jamon and Heather Young-Leslie. ‘Thinking Ecographically: Places, Ecographers and Environmentalism.’ Nature+Culture 3(2): 183-205.
- 2008 ‘Whose Closure?: Appearances, Temporality and Mineral Extraction along the Upper Bulolo River, Papua New Guinea.’ Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14: 21-37.
- 2007 ‘Cannabis and Fantasies of Development: Revaluing Relations through Land in Rural Papua New Guinea.’ The Australian Journal of Anthropology 18(1): 56-71.
- 2006 ‘Another Kind of Gold: An Introduction to Marijuana in Papua New Guinea.’ As part of a special issue, Marijuana in Papua New Guinea, David Lipset and Jamon Halvaksz, Guest Editors. Oceania 76(3): 209-219.
- 2006 ‘Drug Bodies: Relations with Substances.’ As part of a special issue, Marijuana in Papua New Guinea, David Lipset and Jamon Halvaksz, Guest Editors. Oceania 76(3): 235-244.
- 2006 ‘Becoming ‘local tourists’: Travel, landscapes and identity in Papua New Guinea.’ Tourist Studies 6(2): 99-117.
- 2006 ‘Cannibalistic Imaginaries: Mining the Natural and Social Body in Papua New Guinea.’ As part of a special issue: Melanesian Mining Modernities, Paige West, and Martha Macintyre, Guest Editors. The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs 18(2): 335-359.
- 2003 ‘Singing about the Land among the Biangai.’ Oceania 7(3): 153-169.
- 1997 Halvaksz, Jamon and Elizabeth Hochberg. ‘Logging the Southwestern Pacific: Bibliographic Review Essay.’ As part of a special issue: Logging in the Southwestern Pacific, Kathleen Barlow and Steven Winduo, Guest Editors. The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs 9(1): 167-193.
