Maria Woolson’s work brings together the worldviews of science and humanities through teaching and research. Her background combines formal education in the natural sciences and Latin American literature and cultural studies, and her primary areas of study include the environmental humanities and representations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
She has published on a variety of fields, including the edited bilingual volume “A Sustainable Future for Latin America?” (2020), and numerous articles in ecocriticism, performance studies and pedagogy. At the intersection of interdisciplinary work and traditional knowledge, her chapter “From Management to Governance: Rethinking Water Policy and Privatization on Easter Island” (2016) addresses water governance and sustainability in the remote island of Rapa Nui, Chile. She also published a book collaboration of a historic study of 8 Reals Cobs, the hand-made coins of colonial Potosí, titled Re-engraving Assayer’s Initials in Potosi Cobs (2013) and she has a second book collaboration, Searching for Light in the Darkness. Three plays by Griselda Gambaro under review, and expected in 2025.
Maria serves on the boards of the Environmental section for LASA (Latin American Studies Association), and of NECLAS (the New England Council of Latin American Studies). She is also an active member of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), the European Association for the Study of Culture, literature and Environment (EASCLE), the international network Routes towards Sustainability and the emerging Laboratorio de Humanidades Ambientales de América Latina.
Languages spoken:
- Spanish, Italian, English (native/near-native)
- Portuguese (advanced)
- French (reading)