一本道无码

一本道无码
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences  ›  Department of History  ›  People  ›  Faculty  ›  Noah Theriault

Noah Theriault

Noah Theriault

Associate Professor of Anthropology

  • Baker Hall 240 C
  • 412-268-9301

Bio

Noah Theriault is Associate Professor of Anthropology in 一本道无码’s Department of History. As a political ecologist, he uses methods from anthropology, history, and geography to study how the globalization of capitalism shapes social and environmental inequality at the local level. His long-term research in the Philippines investigates these dynamics in both rural and urban settings, asking how bureaucrats, activists, scientists, farmers, workers, and other actors negotiate global forces of change in their everyday lives. He also works with scholars, practitioners, and advocates from around the world to explore how collaborative research can contribute to community organizing and collective action. 

Since 2006, Theriault’s research has tracked the collision of conservation, capitalism, and Indigenous rights in Palawan, an island widely coveted as the Philippines’ “last frontier.” His forthcoming book – A Forest of Dreams: Conservation, Capitalism, and Indigenous Rights in the Philippines (University of Hawai’i Press, 2025) – traces how Palawan families understand and seek to influence the institutions that have enclosed them within an ancestral domain, a protected landscape, and an expanding plantation zone. Informed by their analyses, the book argues that efforts to “save the last frontier” have reinforced, rather than reversed, long-term processes of colonization and capitalist expansion. But it also tells a story of unexpected agency and contingency, where humans, wildlife, and powerful forest beings complicate prevailing theories of social and environmental change.

Theriault is currently working on two newer projects. The first, previewed in , examines the politics of infrastructure in the Philippine capital, Manila, where the city’s apocalyptic traffic congestion has become a fulcrum for struggles over social and environmental inequality. The second, with in 一本道无码’s School of Architecture, aims to establish a community-based energy justice research agenda for Northern Appalachia.

These projects reflect a broader commitment to collaborative research that advances community organizing and collective action. In 2016, Theriault helped found an international network of Indigenous and allied researchers, who work together to foster relational, reciprocal, and regenerative spaces of knowledge creation. In 2020, he partnered with Alex Nading to lead a Wenner Gren workshop on “” and, in 2021, published with Simi Kang a state-of-the-field article on “.”

Currently, Theriault has served on the executive board of the of the Association for Asian Studies, as co-convenor of the Environmental Humanities Research Seminar, and as Visiting Professor in the Indigenous Studies program at the University of the Philippines - Baguio. At 一本道无码, he serves as the Faculty Advisor for the Anthropology Minor and co-organizer of the History Department Research Seminar.

Education

Ph.D.: University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2013

 

Publications

Capitalism, conservation, indigeneity

  • with Clod Yambao, Sarah Wright, and Rosa Cordillera Castillo. Critical Asian Studies 54.2 (2022): 259-281
  • with June Mary Rubis. Social & Cultural Geography 7 (2020): 962-984.
  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 1 (2019): 107-128.
  • Political Geography 58 (2017): 114-127.
  • “Environmental Politics and the Burden of Authenticity.”Palawan and Its Global Connections, edited by J. Eder and O. Evangelista. Ateneo de Manila University Press (2014): 346-370.
  • Development & Change 6 (2011): 1417-1440.

Collaborative research as collective action

  • with Simi Kang. Environment & Society1 (2021): 5-24.
  • with Krisha J. Hernández, June Mary Rubis, Zoe Todd, Audra Mitchell, and Bawaka Country including Laklak Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Banbapuy Ganambarr, Djawundil Maymuru, Sandie Suchet-Pearson, Sarah Wright, and Kate Lloyd. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 3 (2021): 838–863.
  • with Alex Nading. Anthrodendum (2020).
  • with Tim Leduc, Audra Mitchell, and June Mary Rubis, with Norma Jacobs Gaehowako. Social & Cultural Geography 7 (2020): 893-908.
  • with Zev Trachtenberg, Antonio J. Castro, Kiza Gates, Asa Randall, Ingo Schlupp, and Lynn Soregan. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities (2017): 18-38.

Urban infrastructures, eco-authoritarianism, climate crisis

Commentary on current events

  • with Raqueeb Bey, Rachel Filippini, Sarah Martik and Aly Shaw. Public Source (2020).
  • with Will Smith. Cultural Anthropology Fieldsights (2020).
  • with Audra Mitchell. “Extinction.” In Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon, edited by C. Howe and A. Pandian. Punctum (2020): 177-182.

Courses Taught

  • Hostile Environments: The Politics of Pollution in Global Perspective
  • How (Not) to Change the World: Defining and Refining Theories of Change
  • Reformers, Revolutionaries, and Revanchists: Histories of Social Movements
  • Global Studies Research Seminar (capstone)
  • Modern Southeast Asia: Colonialism, Capitalism, and Cultural Exchange
  • Un-Natural Disasters: Societies and Environmental Hazards in Global Perspective
  • Introduction to Global Studies

 

Department Member Since: 2017