Jenny Baca

I am a human geographer specializing in the political ecology of forests. My research centers on the social dimensions of forest governance, including its potential to discipline and dispossess local populations and its capacity to support more just outcomes through the integration of diverse knowledge systems. I’m currently editing my book, Liberar el Bosque: Trabajadores Forestales y Participación Política en el Sur de Chile, which focuses on the participation of the rural working class in the governance of Chile's native forests during socialism, dictatorship, and democracy. It explores the challenges and potential of cross-class alliance in forging a form of forest governance that values the knowledge and experience of rural workers. The book will be published by the Chilean press, Tiempo Robado Ediciones, in 2026.

I’m excited to reconnect with the Bowdoin community after eight years in Washington, DC. From 2015 to 2017, I was a Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow in Bowdoin’s Latin American Studies and Environmental Studies programs and taught courses examining the relationship between people, power, and place. Through a Science & Technology Policy Fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I then shifted out of academia, working as a Gender & Youth Advisor in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace. For the past five years, I’ve worked in environmental consulting, supporting USAID’s global conservation and climate programming through research, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, and organizational learning.