San Angelo Native Jeffrey Hoelle to Speak at Angelo State on ‘Rainforest Cowboys’

San Angelo native Dr. Jeffrey Hoelle will make a special appearance at Angelo State University to speak on his new book, “Rainforest Cowboys: The Rise of Ranching and Cattle Culture in Western Amazonia,” at 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 14, in the Houston Harte University Center, 1910 Rosemont Drive.

An assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Hoelle will present his ASU lecture in the University Center’s C.J. Davidson Conference Center. The free lecture is sponsored by ASU’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations.

Published in April by the University of Texas Press, “Rainforest Cowboys” is an interdisciplinary study that is the first to examine the interlinked economic uses and cultural practices and beliefs surrounding cattle in Western Amazonia, where cattle raising is at the center of debates about economic development and environmental conservation. In a review, Dr. Susanna B. Hecht wrote: “This careful analysis of social identities and local political ecologies helps explain why cattle production now pervades all livelihoods and lifeways in the politically ‘greenest’ corner of Amazonia. This book is not about just rural but also city influence, and thus captures new dynamics that now shape forest frontiers.”

A member of UCSB’s faculty since 2012, Hoelle earned a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Florida, a master’s in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Southwestern University in Georgetown. He is a Hellman Family Faculty Fellow and has won national competitions for his academic writing as well as a U.S. State Department Fulbright Grant. He is a member of the American Anthropological Association, the Association of American Geographers, the Brazilian Studies Assocation and the Society for Applied Anthropology.