Todd French

Office Hours:
Tuesdays: 1:30 - 2:30
Wednesdays: 2:00 - 3:00
Thursdays: 1:30 - 2:30

Todd French

Visiting Instructor in Sociology & Anthropology

Munroe Hall 305

Phone: 802.443.5755

Email: tfrench@middlebury.edu

Degrees, Specializations & Interests:
Boston University
Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology, expected completion May 2008

My interest in African cultures developed long ago when my step-father awed me with stories of his own childhood exploring the forests and savannas of the Belgian Congo and observing African ways of life. As I also spent much of my life hiking, fishing and exploring around new england, I have been fascinated by the natural world. Anthropology has allowed me to combine these passions from my boyhood in a career that has focussed on human ecology in southern Africa.
Along the way I have participated in an archaeological dig in a paleolithic cave in northern Spain, studied a Cape Verdean-American community in New Bedford, looked at the history of civil society in townships in South Africa and investigated a grass-roots environmental movement based on traditional religion in Zimbabwe. In 2001 and 2002 I carried out research in central Mozambique on a population living in and around Gorongosa National Park. The dissertation that is based on this research, titled “Remembering the Land: memory and the restoration of landscapes in central Mozambique”, explores conflicts surrounding the reconstruction of landscapes and livelihoods in the wake of decades of civil war and environmental disasters and is part of my general interest in the relationship between social and ecological resilience in the face of violent conflict and environmental instability. In it I reconstruct how humans in central Mozambique have responded to various disruptions, such as violence, drought, and relocation, to understand why at some moments these systems have been resilient and other times vulnerable to collapse. I also examine the field of power relations at various scales, in which social actors construct memories and discourses about the landscape during post-conflict reconstruction. My continuing and future research over the next several years will be on how the cultural politics of social memory influence both scientific and local discourses and practice in Mozambican conservation and development. Recently, the Carr Foundation, an American philanthropic institution, has committed large sums of money over a thirty-year period to restore the park while creating social and economic opportunities for the surrounding communities. I plan to return to Gorongosa District to examine how the cultural politics of memory influence this new phase of reconstruction. The results of this research will be added to my dissertation data and turned into a manuscript.
I am finishing my doctorate in Anthropology at Boston University and have been teaching at the University of New Hampshire in Durham for the past five years. My wife Kathryn and I both spend as much time outside as possible hiking, fishing, and exploring this new part of New England.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Historical and political ecologies, social memory of landscape change, the cultural politics of ecological restoration, resilience in socio-ecological systems, globalization and environmental conservation, with an area specialization in southern Africa.
EDUCATION
Boston University
Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Anthropology, expected completion May 2008
Dissertation: “Remembering the Land: Memory and the Restoration of Landscapes in
central Mozambique.”
The College, University of Chicago, 1994
Bachelor of Arts with General Honors in Anthropology.
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, January 2003-present.
Lecturer, Granite State College, Portsmouth, NH.        September, 2006- present.
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harper Community College, June 2000-July 2000.
Teacher’s Assistant, Department of Anthropology, Tufts University, January 2000-December 2000.
COURSES TAUGHT
Global Perspectives on the Human Condition: Introductory Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, Fall, Spring and Summer, 2003- present.
Environmental Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, Spring 2008, Spring 2004.
History of Anthropological Theory, University of New Hampshire, Fall 2007.
Issues in Contemporary Theory, University of New Hampshire, Spring 2008.
Peoples and Cultures of the World: sub-Saharan Africa, Spring 2000, Spring 2007.
African Political Change, Fall 2006.
Kinship and Social Organization, Fall 2006.
FIELD RESEARCH
Mozambique
Fulbright Student Fellowship to Mozambique for long-term qualitative research on the effects of violent conflict on the resilience of communities in the buffer zone of Gorongosa National Park. September 2001- November 2002.
Mozambique
Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Participatory rural research among villagers in Gorongosa District, Mozambique for Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Dr.Tim Lynam, University of Zimbabwe, Director. July- August 2002.
French, T. 2002. Southern African Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (SAfMA) Gorongosa-Marromeu component. Scenarios from a local community: Vunduzi, Gorongosa District, Sofala province. Unpublished SAfMA-GM report.
Mozambique
Resilience Alliance Workshop to review what is known of the ecosystems of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. Eng. Roberto Zolho, Gorongosa National Park, and Dr. Tim Lynam, University of Zimbabwe, Directors. October 2001.
Zimbabwe
Investigation of AZTREC, the “Association of Zimbabwean Traditionalist Ecologists,” and the AAEC, “Association of African Earthkeeping Churches.” Dr. Martinus Daneel, Director. July 1997.
South Africa
Ford Foundation Pre-Dissertation Fellowship Research, Conducted interviews in South Africa on the history of civil society in urban townships, Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town. June-July 1996.
Santander, Spain
El Juyo Paleolithic Cave. Field School, Instituto para Investigaciones Prehistóricas/University of Chicago. Principal Investigators: Leslie Freeman and Joaquin Gonzalez Echegarray. July 1994.
SCHOLARLY PRESENTATIONS
Landscape, Memory, and Restoration in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. Anthropology Department Lecture Series, University of New Hampshire, Durham. May 2006.
“When Two Buffalo Fight, It is the Grass that Suffers: Conflict, Environment and Development in Central Mozambique.” Walter Rodney Seminar Series. African Studies Center, Boston University, April 2005.
“Trampled Grass: Social institutions, Violence, and the Environment in Mozambique, 1980-2000.” Graduate Research Conference in African Studies, Boston University, 1999.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Article: “The Role of Social Memories in Adaptive Learning and Resilience: Case Study in Gorongosa, Mozambique” to be submitted to Ecology and Society for June 2008 publication.
Working Paper: “Landscape, Memory, and Post-Conflict Restoration in Mozambique” to be submitted to Working Papers in African Studies, Boston University for December 2007 publication.
Article: “Cotton, Conservation, and the Creation of Vulnerability in Central Mozambique, 1945-1975” to be submitted to International Journal of African Historical Studies for publication Volume 40, Number 3, 2008.
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS
Dean’s Award, Boston University                                 2007-2008
J. William Fulbright Student Fellowship to Mozambique 2001-2002
Graduate School Fellowship, Boston University                   1997-1998
Graduate School Assistantship, Boston University                1999-2000
Syracuse University International Study Grant                   June-July 1997
Ford Foundation Pre-Dissertation Fellowship                     June-July 1996
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship                    1995-1997
Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa of Illinois                                1994
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
French, reading and writing.
Portuguese, fluent.
SeTwana, fair.
ChiShona, fair.
ChiSena, fair.

Faculty & Office Hours

Jacob A. Tropp

F.B.A. Asiedu

Armelle Crouzieres-Ingenthron