Expertise:
Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Environmental Advocacy, Politics and the Environment, Political Ecology, Conservation & Politics, Cultural Anthropology, Natural Resources, Watershed Management, Water and River Protection, Environmental Conflicts (Hydroelectric Dams, Mining, Logging, Oil & Gas), Territorial Disputes, Sovereignty and Self-Determination, Latin America, Southern Cone, South Atlantic, Chile, Argentina, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), North America, California, Salton Sea, Lithium MiningRooted in cultural and environmental anthropology, as well as human geography, James J. A. Blair’s research employs ethnographic and historical methods to advance the interdisciplinary fields of political ecology, science, technology and society (STS), and settler colonial studies. His work centers on energy, water and environmental justice in the Americas, particularly conflicts over mining, logging and hydroelectric dams in Chile, as well as offshore oil in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).
In California, Blair has led students in community-engaged research and service-learning projects to support local responses to air pollution, solar power and geothermal lithium development at the Salton Sea. In addition to his public and applied research, Blair has professional experience in global environmental policy, as an International Advocate for NRDC, as well as Land Agency Coordinator for Sierra Club.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-G2022-STAR-F2, Early Career: Drivers and Environmental Impacts of Energy Transitions in Underserved Communities Research Grant (with: PI Alida Cantor, Portland State University; Co-PI Kate Berry, University of Nevada, Reno; and Co-PI Dustin Mulvaney, San Jose State University), $649,456 total, $115,000 allocated to Cal Poly Pomona as subrecipient, 2023-2026
- National Science Foundation, BCS Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences (HEGS) Research Grant (with: PI Alida Cantor, Portland State University; Co-PI Dustin Mulvaney, San Jose State University; and Co-PI Kate Berry, University of Nevada, Reno), $399,876 total, $84,000 allocated to Cal Poly Pomona as subrecipient, 2022-2025
- Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), International Program Consultancy Contract $47,399, 2019-2020
- Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), International Program Consultancy Contract $18,600, 2019
- Mellon/ACLS, Public Fellowship, appointed as International Campaign Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), $140,000, 2017-2019
- Anthropology and Environment Society, Next Generation Award, $250, 2016
- National Science Foundation, SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant $17,703 (co-funded by the Cultural Anthropology and Science, Technology, and Society (STS) programs), 2014-15
- Fulbright-IIE, All-Disciplines Postgraduate Award to United Kingdom, £12,000, 2014-15
- Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, $20,000, 2013-2014
- Social Science Research Council, Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship (DPDF), Governing Global Production subfield, $5,000, 2012
Selected Publications:
- With Noel Vineyard, Dustin Mulvaney, Alida Cantor, Ali Sharbat, Kate Berry, Elizabeth Bartholomew and Ariana Firebaugh Ornelas, “Lithium and water: Hydrosocial impacts across the life cycle of energy storage,” WIREs Water, July 14, 2024
- Salvaging Empire: Sovereignty, Natural Resources and Environmental Science in the South Atlantic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023
- “The Falklands/Malvinas and Argentina’s Thatcherite Turn,” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), Dec. 13, 2023
- With Grant Gutierrez and Ramón Balcázar M., From Watershed Moment to Hydrosocial Movement: Patagonia Without Dams and the Free-Flowing Rivers Network in Chile. Human Organization, 82(3), 288–303, 2023
- With Ramón M. Balcázar, Javiera Barandiarán and Amanda Maxwell, “The ‘Alterlives’ of Green Extractivism: Lithium Mining and Exhausted Ecologies in the Atacama Desert.” International Development Policy, 2023
- “Data Gaps: Penguin Science and Petrostate Formation in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).” In The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics. Edited by Jenny Goldstein and Eric Nost. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022
- The Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), 2022
- With Ramón Balcázar, “Plurinational Climate Action: Environmental Governance Beyond Green Extractivism.” Cultural Anthropology: Hot Spots, Fieldsites, 2022
- With Cynthia Isenhour, “Introduction: Negotiating the Crisis: Critical Perspectives on Climate Governance.” Cultural Anthropology: Hot Spots, Fieldsites, 2022
- With Amanda Maxwell, “Lithium Mining Must Not Dry Up the Atacama Desert,” NRDC Expert Blog, May 12, 2022
- With Ramón M. Balcázar, Javiera Barandiarán and Amanda Maxwell, “Exhausted: How We Can Stop Lithium Mining from Depleting Water Resources, Draining Wetlands, and Harming Communities in South America.” Report published by NRDC (R: 21-10-A), 2022
- “Extractivismo del Litio y el Problema de la Escala: Acción Climática Global y Justicia Ambiental Local.” Salares Andinos: Ecología de Saberes por la Protección de Nuestros Salares y Humedales. Edited by Bárbara Jerez Henríquez, Sergio Uribe Sierra and Ramón Morales Balcázar. Santiago: Fundación Tantí, 2020
- With Jessica Carey-Webb, “Water Is a Right: The Parallel COP in Chile,” NRDC Expert Blog, December 23, 2019
- “Tracking Penguins, Sensing Petroleum: ‘Data Gaps’ and the Politics of Marine Ecology in the South Atlantic:” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 2019, DOI:10.1177/2514848619882938
- “South Atlantic Universals: Science, Sovereignty and Self-Determination in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas),” Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, 2019, DOI:10.1080/25729861.2019.1633225
- “Revisiting Nahuelbuta (1 of 2),” and “Revisiting Nahuelbuta (2 of 2),” NRDC Expert Blog, August 9, 2019
- “Splintered Hinterlands: Public Anthropology, Environmental Advocacy and Indigenous Sovereignty,” Journal of Ethnobiology, Vol. 39 (1): 32-49, 2019, DOI:10.2993/0278-0771-39.1.32
- “International Day of Indigenous Peoples: Free Nahuelbuta,” NRDC Expert Blog, August 9, 2018
- “NAFTA to Canada: Face the Facts on Tar Sands Tailings Ponds,” NRDC Expert Blog, May 10, 2018
- “World Water Day: Chile’s New Wave of River Protectors,” NRDC Expert Blog, April 6, 2018
- “Settler Indigeneity and the Eradication of the Non-Native: Self-Determination and Biosecurity in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI). Vol. 23 (3): 580-602, 2017, DOI:10.1111/1467-9655.12653
- “Brexit’s South American Ripple Effect,” North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), August 4, 2016
- “Treasure Islands? Oil and Gas in the Falklands,” The Economist, February 28, 2014
- “Recent Studies of Oil in Latin America: Conflicted Consultancy, Peaked Patrimony and Neoliberalismo.” The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology. Vol. 19 (3): 531-537, 2014, DOI:10.1111/jlca.12132
Interviews:
- “EPA settles case with Hell’s Kitchen Geothermal over wetlands discharge impacting on Salton Sea,” Imperial Valley Press, Oct. 19, 2024
- “Water and renewable energy transitions,” The Geographer Magazine, Sept. 24, 2024 (Page 41)
- “Lithium mining is big in Chile, but extraction operations also have negative impacts” — The World, NPR/Public Radio Exchange (PRX), Sept. 2, 2024 (Audio)
- “Explosion of power-hungry data centers could derail California clean energy goals,” Los Angeles Times, Aug. 12, 2024
- “Boiling Point: The Salton Sea Lithium Rush,” Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2024
- “Lithium Critical to the Energy Transition Is Coming at the Expense of Water,” Inside Climate News, July 18, 2024
- “Lithium Valley Outreach Contracts End with Final Summaries,” Calexico Chronicle, June 20, 2024
- “LA’s having second thoughts about 2030,” Politico, April 19, 2024
- “Lithium Valley | Episode 1: The White Gold Rush,” Electric Futures Podcast (Interview starts at 26:47), Jan. 24, 2024
- “Lithium Extraction from Geothermal Brine,” California Council on Science and Technology, Dec. 15, 2023
- “Lithium Mining is Changing Chile’s Atacama Desert,” The World, Public Radio Exchange (PRX), Nov. 14, 2022
- “Featured Q&A: Is Chile Losing Ground to Other Lithium Producers?” Energy Advisor, Inter-American Dialogue, Sept. 2, 2022
- “Why Lithium Mining for EV Batteries Should Be Our ‘Absolute Last Resort’,” StreetsBlog USA, May 3, 2022
- “As Lithium Drilling Advances at the Salton Sea, Researchers Work Out the Details,” KCET, March 21, 2022
- “Chile is in for a mining boom. Could a new constitution prevent environmental catastrophe?” Grist, Jan. 28, 2022
- “Uncharted Horizons: Season 3, Episode 1,” Learn Through Discovery, Cal Poly Pomona, Nov. 4, 2021
- “Mining Atop a Massacre,” Atmos, Oct. 18, 2021
- “Why Advocates are Skipping International Climate Talks to Stand with Chilean Activists,” Gizmondo, Dec. 4, 2019
- “Experto internacional critica falta de cuidado de las cuencas chilenas,” Diario y Radio Universidad de Chile, July 2, 2018
- “Política energética para Aysén: organizaciones sociales entregan propuesta al gobierno, La Tercera, May 10, 2018
- “Chile quiere avanzar en la protección de sus ríos y conservación de sus parques,” Corresponsables, April 9, 2018
- “ONG norteamericana: ‘Hay victorias muy emocionantes como HidroAysén, pero mi preocupación es que sean a corto plazo.’” Soy Chile (subsidiary of El Mercurio), March 15, 2018
- Radio interview on the 35th Anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas War with Latino Media Collective, 89.3FM, Washington, D.C., April 14, 2017
Education:
B.A., History, Philosophy and Latin American Studies, Boston College
M.Phil. & Ph.D., Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Languages:
English, Spanish (fluent reading, speaking and writing; trained in media communication)