Elliott Oakley
Dr. Elliott Oakley is a cultural anthropologist at the Field Museum of Natural History, where he works with an interdisciplinary team advancing conservation and community well-being in the Andes-Amazon-Guiana shield region.
Oakley's research addresses the politics of conservation and environmental governance in the Amazon. Over more than a decade, he has studied how Indigenous communities in Guyana engage with conservation initiatives, extractive economies, and state governance to strengthen self-determination and livelihoods. He is particularly interested in the ways Indigenous political agency and sovereignty intersect with national and international conservation priorities.
In the Action Center's Andes-Amazon Program, Oakley collaborates with Indigenous organizations, scientists, and conservation practitioners in Guyana and Brazil to integrate social science and Indigenous knowledge into strategies that support both biodiversity and local livelihoods.
Oakley serves as a Board Member of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America and is a Scholar-at-Large in the University of Chicago's Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering. Prior to joining the Field Museum, he taught at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of San Francisco.
Selected Publications
Di Giminiani, Piero and R. Elliott Oakley. 2023. "The making of a conservation frontier: Nation-building, green productivism and the politics of environmental knowledge along the Argentina-Chile border." Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12684
Oakley, R. Elliott. 2022. "Being forgotten, being remembered: The affective politics of Waiwai memory in Guyanese Amazonia." American Ethnologist 49(3): 345-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13093
Oakley, R. Elliott. 2020. "Demarcated pens, dependent pets: Conservation livelihoods in an indigenous Amazonian protected area." Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 25(2): 248-265. https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12479
High, Casey and R. Elliott Oakley. 2020. "Conserving and Extracting Nature: Environmental politics and livelihoods in the new 'middle grounds' of Amazonia." Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. 25(2): 236-247 https://doi.org/10.1111/jlca.12490
Oakley, R. Elliott. 2019. "'Opening Up' the Village: Canoes, Conservation and Contending with Transformation in Amazonia." Etnofoor 31(2): 33-50.
Education and Work
PhD, Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh (2019)
BA, Anthropology and Economics, University of Virginia (2013)
