Marian Thorpe, Ph.D., Rutgers University, Anthropology

Position
Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer in Latin American Studies
Bio/Description

MARIAN AHN THORPE (Ph.D., Rutgers University). Thorpe is an environmental and political anthropologist who studies Indigenous rights and development in Latin America. Her work examines the application of the international Indigenous right of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent/Consultation (FPIC), which holds that Native peoples have the right to participate in development decisions that affect their lands and livelihoods. While at PLAS, she will be working on a book project entitled, Controversies of Consent: Indigenous Rights and Development in Panama, which analyzes FPIC in struggles over territory, dams, and public health interventions in Ngäbe Indigenous territory in western Panama. Setting FPIC in conversation with discussions of consent in feminist legal studies, development studies, and medical anthropology, she demonstrates that FPIC is a multifaceted tool that states use to manage Indigenous participation in development, and that Native peoples use to negotiate rights, culture, and internal politics. Her work has been supported by the Inter-American Foundation for Grassroots Development and various entities at Rutgers University.