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 the humanities, and her primary areas of study include the environmental humanities and Latin American cultural representations of the 20th and 21st centuries.
She has published on a variety of fields, including the recently 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).
Maria is senior co-chair of the Environmental section for LASA (Latin American Studies Association), and an executive committee member of its New England chapter NECLAS. She is also an active member of the international network Routes towards Sustainability and the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE).
Languages spoken:
- Spanish, Italian, English (native/near-native)
- Portuguese (advanced)
- French (reading)
