I am an Environmental Sociologist studying the nature-society relationship, global environmental change, and unequal development. My research and teaching has focused on agriculture and global food systems, humanity’s impact on the environment, and unequal exchange and development. I am also interested in social theory, environmental history, conservation biology, and evolution. I utilize quantitative and historical methods.
Sikirica, Amanda, Nicholas G. Theis, and Mauricio Betancourt. 2022. “Conflicting Outcomes of Alternative Energies: Agricultural Methane Emissions and Hydroelectricity, 1975-2015.” Environmental Research: Climate. doi: 10.1088/2752-5295/ac8ca9.
Loustaunau, Lola, Betancourt, Mauricio, Clark, Brett, and Foster, John Bellamy. 2021. "Racialized Contract Labor, the Corporeal Rift, and Ecological Imperialism in Peru’s Nineteenth-Century Guano Boom." Journal of Peasant Studies, doi: 10.1080/03066150.2021.1979966.
Betancourt, Mauricio. 2020. "The effect of Cuban agroecology in mitigating the metabolic rift: A quantitative approach to Latin American food production." Global Environmental Change, 63, 102075. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102075.
González, Cecilia, Alonso, Cristina, Mora, Emilio, Betancourt, Mauricio, Uscanga, Adriana, and Benítez, Mariana. 2017. "Modos de producción agrícola y conservación de la biodiversidad en México." Biodiversitas, 132: 3-6.
Environmental Sociology; Political Economy; Ecological Economics
Global Environmental Change; Agriculture and Food Systems; Imperialism.
Social Theory; Sociology of Science; Environmental History; Evolution.
Quantitative and Historical Research Methods.
2021, Wasby-Johnson Dissertation Award. University of Oregon,
Department of Sociology, April 15.
2021, Research Award for Best Publication. University of Oregon,
Department of Sociology, April 15.
2020, Best M.A. Paper Award. University of Oregon, Department of Sociology.
Spring 2023
Introduction to Sociology: Understanding Social Behavior and Structural Inequality — SOCI 165