"I am a political ecologist and feminist geographer whose ethnographically-based research focuses on the everyday effects of corporate and state practices that shape resource extraction in Ecuador. My teaching emphasizes the political, social, cultural, and ecological implications of pressing global issues."
Emily Billo
Associate ProfessorWomen, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Emily Billo is Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She completed her doctorate in geography in 2012 at Syracuse University. Prior to her arrival at Goucher in 2013, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bucknell University. At Goucher College, she teaches introductory and advanced courses that employ a critical feminist approach to investigate the unjust and unequal outcomes of environmental decision-making. Dr. Billo's research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of feminist political ecology, theories of critical development, and feminist methods. Questions of resource access and distribution, identities and social movement formation, subjectivity and power relations are long-standing fascinations.
Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress
Dr. Billo’s research employs qualitative methods and is both empirically grounded and theoretically informed. She uses a political economic framework to investigate analytical links between subject formation, institutions, and resource extraction in Ecuador. Since 2013, Dr. Billo has conducted ethnographic research on the gendered social and environmental impacts of a proposed state-led copper mining project in the region of Intag, Ecuador. Research from this project has been published in the journal Human Geography. Women’s narrations of environmental and social transitions, in a period of ongoing and intersecting crises, including a global pandemic, reveal material and immaterial relations that sustain everyday lives. A new project builds through the concept of social infrastructure to demonstrate how women’s narratives in Intag illustrate rhythms and contradictions that emerge through human and non-human relations.
A previous project investigated the criminalization of environmental protests in Intag, Ecuador. This research considered how criminalizing environmental protests served as a violent political strategy of the post-neoliberal Ecuadorian state. It investigated how criminalization becomes tightly woven into the fabric of state power in the region of Intag in Ecuador, a site of increasingly contentious debates by state institutions, corporations, environmentalists, indigenous and campesino communities, as well as researchers. Employing an institutional ethnography, this project provided a critical investigation into the social relationships of criminalization, articulated through discourses, practices, and performances of subjects in the space of Intag. Research findings from this project have been published in the journal North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) with Goucher undergraduate Isaiah Zukowski. Research findings are also published in an edited volume on resource governance (L. Leonard and S. Grovogui, eds.)
Another area of interest is the qualitative research process itself, and specifically feminist epistemologies and methodologies. This research has been published in co-authored pieces in Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Gender, Place & Culture, Progress in Human Geography, and in The Professional Geographer.
Publications
Selected Publications
Billo, Billo E. 2020. “Patriarchy and progressive politics: Gendered resistance to mining through everyday social relations of state formation in Intag, Ecuador.” Human Geography 13 (1) 16-26.
Billo, Billo, E. 2020. “Building solidarities: Methodological dilemmas and progressive politics in Intag, Ecuador.” Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. Contribution to a special issue Extraction, entanglements, and (im)materialities: Reflections on the methods and methodologies of natural resource industries fieldwork (A. Johnson and A. Zalik, editors).
Billo, E. 2020. “Gendering indigenous subjects: an institutional ethnography of corporate social responsibility in Ecuador.” Gender, Place & Culture 27 (8): 1134-54.
Pearson, Z., S. Ellingrod, E. Billo, K. McSweeney. 2019. “Corporate Social Responsibility and the Reproduction of (Neo)Colonialism in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” The Extractive Industries and Society, 6(3): 881-888.
Hiemstra, N. and E. Billo. 2017. “Introduction to focus section: Feminist research and knowledge production in geography.” The Professional Geographer, 69(2): 284-290.
Billo, E. and A. Mountz. 2016. “For institutional ethnography: Geographical approaches to institutions and the everyday.” Progress in Human Geography, 40(2): 199-220.
Billo, E., 2015. “Sovereignty and subterranean resources: An institutional ethnography of Repsol’s corporate social responsibility programs in Ecuador.” Geoforum, 59: 268-277.
Billo, E. and N. Hiemstra, 2013. “Mediating messiness: Expanding ideas of flexibility, reflexivity and embodiment in fieldwork,” Gender, Place & Culture, 20(3): 313-328.
Book Chapter
Billo, E. Forthcoming “Institutional ethnography: A feminist methodological approach to studying institutions of resource governance.” Invited chapter for Routledge Handbook of Critical Resource Geography.
Billo, E., 2017. “Resource extraction and the right to protest: Criminalization and everyday constructions of the post-neoliberal Ecuadorian state.” In Governance in the Extractive Industries: Power, Cultural Politics and Regulation, edited by Lori Leonard and Siba N. Grovogui, (eds.), 39-56. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Non-Refereed Publications
Billo, E. “Institutional Ethnography in Geography.” 2019. Contribution to Sage Encyclopaedia of Social Research Methods, an online publication.
Billo, E. and I. Zukowski (Goucher undergraduate), 2015. “Criminals or citizens? Mining and citizen protest in Correa’s Ecuador” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA). Retrieved from:
Book Reviews
2018. Review of F. Lu, G. Valdivia, and N.L. Silva, ‘Oil, Revolution, and Indigenous Citizenship in Ecuadorian Amazonia’, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), Journal of Peasant Studies, 45(3): 682-685.
2017. Review of S. Radcliffe, ‘Dilemmas of Difference: Indigenous Women and the Limits of Postcolonial Development Policy’ (Durham & London: Duke University Press), Journal of Latin American Geography, 16(1): 211-214.
2015. Review of A. Bebbington and J. Bury, eds., ‘Subterranean Struggles: New Dynamics of mining, oil, and gas in Latin America’ (Austin: University of Texas Press), The Extractive Industries and Society, 2(4): 842-844.
2014. Review of D. Hindery, ‘From Enron to Evo: Pipeline Politics, Global Environmentalism, and Indigenous Rights in Bolivia’ (Tucson: University of Arizona Press), The Latin Americanist, 58(2): 183-185.
2008. Review of M. Peña, ‘Latina Activists Across Borders: Women’s Grassroots Organizing in Mexico and Texas’ (Durham & London: Duke University Press), Gender, Place & Culture, 15(6): 647-661.
External Awards, Honors, Grants
2020-2021 Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership Fellow, awarded for development of a Food Justice course, $4,000.
National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement grant, “Corporate social responsibility and rural development in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” $12,000, 2009-2010.
Inter-American Foundation Grassroots Development PhD Fellowship, “Corporate social responsibility and rural development in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” $25,000, 2008-2009.
Conference Papers & Panel Participation
Papers
“‘Bread for today, hunger for tomorrow’: Social reproduction and gendered resistance to state-led mining in Intag, Ecuador,” Feminist Geography IGU Pre-conference, Montréal, Canada, August 2018.
“Landscape transformation and state effect: Everyday social relationships of mining, resource access, and nature’s materiality in Intag, Ecuador,” Political Geography Specialty Group Pre-Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 2018.
“Resource extraction and the right to protest: Criminalization and expanding state power in the post-neoliberal Ecuadorian state,” American Association of Geographers Conference, Boston, MA, April 2017.
“Resource extraction and the right to protest: Contentious politics in Intag, Ecuador,” Political Ecologies of Conflict, Capitalism, and Contestation, Wageningen, The Netherlands, July 2016.
“Resource extraction and the right to protest: Contentious politics in Intag, Ecuador,” Association of American Geographers Conference, San Francisco, CA, April 2016.
“Everyday spaces of knowledge production: Mining and opposition movements in Ecuador’s Zona de Intag,” Latin American Studies Association Congress, San Juan, PR, May 2015.
“An institutional ethnography of corporate social responsibility programs in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” Association of American Geographers Conference, Chicago, IL, April 2015.
“Mobilizing ambivalence: An institutional ethnography of corporate social responsibility programs in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” Critical Geography Conference, Philadelphia, PA, November 2014.
“Constructions of territory: state sovereignty and indigenous citizenship in Ecuador through institutional expansion of corporate social responsibility programs,” Latin American Studies Association Congress, Chicago, IL, May 2014.
“For institutional ethnography: Geographical approaches to institutions and the everyday,” Feminist Geography Conference, Omaha, NE, May 2014.
“Interpreting the ‘zone of influence’: Activism, corporate social responsibility, & indigenous subjects in Ecuador,” Dimensions of Political Ecology, Lexington, KY, February 2014.
“Situated struggles: Corporate social responsibility, indigenous subjectivity, and oil extraction in Ecuador,” Latin American Studies Association Congress, Washington, DC, May 2013.
“Rights, access, and resources: An institutional ethnography of corporate social responsibility and the oil industry in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” Association of American Geographers conference, Los Angeles, CA, April 2013.
“Corporate social responsibility and indigenous rights in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon region,” Latin American Studies Association Congress, San Francisco, CA, May 2012.
“Exploring the everyday through an institutional ethnography of corporate social responsibility,” Association of American Geographers conference, New York, NY, February 2012.
“The nexus of development and corporate social responsibility: Indigeneity and resource extraction in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon region,” Rethinking development: Debating new directions in a time of crises, Conference at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, November 2011.
“The politics of oil extraction: Corporate social responsibility and indigenous communities in Ecuador,” Association of American Geographers conference, Seattle, WA, April 2011.
“‘Socially responsible investment’ and the governance of oil extraction in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon,” Latin American Studies Association Congress, Toronto, Canada, October 2010.
“Contradictions and conflict: An institutional analysis of corporate social responsibility,” Association of American Geographers conference, Washington, DC, April, 2010.
“Corporate social responsibility and rural development in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” Association of American Geographers conference, Boston, MA, April 2008.
“What does corporate social responsibility really mean? The case of the multinational petroleum industry in Ecuador's northern Amazon region,” Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, Colorado Springs, CO, May 2007.
“Development of the oil industry in Ecuador: How extraction ‘discourses’ contribute to the industry’s dominance in the Amazon region,” Association of American Geographers conference, San Francisco, CA, April 2007.
“The multinational petroleum industry in Ecuador’s Amazon region: A case for “corporate governance?,” Latin American Studies Program, Graduate Student Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, March 2007.
“Identity in social movement formation: Challenging a global oil industry within three Kichwa communities in Ecuador’s Amazon region,” Latin American Studies Program, Graduate Student Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, March 2006.
Invited Panelist
Critical Resource Geography II: Theory, Method, and Engagement, American Association of Geographers Conference, Washington, DC, April 2019.
Mediating (Im)Materialities: Reflection on the Methods and Methodologies of Natural Resource Industries Fieldwork, American Association of Geographers Conference, Washington, DC, April 2019.
Conference Conclusion Panel, Doing Critical GIS Workshop, organized by the Department of Geography at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Towson University, at Red Emma’s Café,Baltimore, MD April 2019.
Collaborations in the Field and at Home, American Association of Geographers Conference, Boston, MA, April 2017.
Fieldwork in Human Geography, Association of American Geographers Conference, San Francisco, CA, April 2016.
Ethnography and Critical Human Geography, Association of American Geographers Conference, Chicago, IL, April 2015.
Discussant
“The commodification of nature in Latin America: Where are we going?” Two paper sessions at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 2018.
“Contestation over Resource Access, Governance and Territoriality in the Central Andes,” Paper session at the Latin American Studies Association Congress, Toronto, Canada, October 2010.
Invited Talks
“Sovereignty and subterranean resources: An institutional ethnography of Repsol’s corporate social responsibility programs in Ecuador,” Seminar Series, Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Spring 2016.
“Corporate social responsibility, oil extraction, and Ecuador,” First-Year Frontiers Course, FRO 100, Goucher College, Spring 2016.
“Expanding the ‘zone of influence’: An institutional ethnography of corporate social responsibility programs in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” Political Ecology, ES 230, Environmental Studies, Goucher College, Fall 2013, Spring 2014.
“Qualitative Methods,” Research Methods, ENST 302, Environmental Studies, Bucknell University, Fall 2012, Spring 2013.
“Corporate social responsibility, oil extraction, and Ecuador,” Globalization, IREL 350, International Relations, Bucknell University, Fall 2012.
“Corporate social responsibility and rural development in Ecuador's northern Amazon region,” America and the Global Environment, GEO 103, Department of Geography, Syracuse University, Spring 2011.
“Corporate social responsibility and rural development in Ecuador’s northern Amazon region,” Introduction to Geography course, Community College of Vermont, Spring 2010.
“Corporate social responsibility and oil extraction in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon region,” Symposium, University of Washington Exploration Seminar, Cusco, Peru, Fall 2009.
“Corporate social responsibility, oil extraction and indigenous peoples in the northern Ecuadorian Amazon region,” Syracuse University Study Abroad Program, Santiago, Chile, Spring 2009.
“Social movement formation in the Ecuadorian Amazon region,” Environmental Science course, Ithaca College, Spring 2006.
Academic or Professional Associations
Association of American Geographers (AAG)
Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (CLAG)
Latin American Studies Association (LASA)
Future Professoriate Program of Syracuse University (FPP), 2006-2008
Other Professional or Scholarly Activity
Environment Related Professional Experience
Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, NY, 2002-2004
Air/Energy and Environmental Justice Programs Assistant
Researched and wrote on various issues of importance to programs and colleagues, including greenhouse gas emissions trading programs, renewable energy (biomass), and childhood lead paint poisoning guidelines
Researched and organized an institutional policy to track, reduce and offset organization wide greenhouse gas emissions and register emissions with a state greenhouse gas registry
Outreach to community groups and preparing and assembling briefs for litigation purposes
Organization of, and preparation for program related meetings
Proofread reports for publication
Natural Resources Defense Council, New York, NY, 2001-2002
Membership Assistant
Composed letters and emails in response to member questions, occasionally involving online research
Answered phone calls from members, including environmental program related questions
Proofreading membership publications and direct mail letters
Processing membership donations
Dewey Ballantine LLP, Environmental Group, New York, NY, 2000-2001
Paralegal
Researched high priority legal issues and cases to contribute to briefs and articles drafted by attorneys
Wrote background memoranda summarizing current legal and policy issues of interest to the group
Attended and summarized meetings in writing on behalf of clients
Prepared and assembled briefs required to meet deadlines for specific cases