Senior Sustainability Scientist, Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Arizona State University; Associate Professor of Religious Studies; Affiliated Faculty, Center for Biodiversity Outcomes
Roles: Integration of insights and species inventory with the value systems of indigenous cultures
Languages: English, Spanish
Dr. Swanson directed ASU's Center for Latin American Studies as a Title VI National Resource Center, 1997-2007. In 1999, he founded the Andes and Amazon Field School at Santu Urku (an Amazonian Kichwa community in Napo Province, Ecuador). During the summer months, he resides at this site with his wife and four children, where he manages an Amazonian forest preserve. Dr. Swanson serves the Santu Urku community in an elected capacity as councilman for environmental affairs. His work stems from a lifelong interest in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where he grew up as the son of evangelical missionaries. His studies of Amazonian Kichwa and Shuar religion seek to understand how heightened empathy with plant and animals species mediates emotional relations to family and community. His approach uses linguistic analysis of native discourse to uncover implicit assumptions underlying Amazonian thinking. Swanson is currently working on two articles: "I am the Mountain Toucan's Wife: How birds mediate social relations in the Ecuadorian Amazon,” and "Earth as Memory: Andean Kichwa thinking on the accumulation of history in the soil."
Education
PhD, University of Chicago
BA, University of Minnesota