Christopher Loperena is an assistant professor of International
Studies. He received his Ph.D. in the African Diaspora Program in
Social Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he
also earned an M.A. in Latin American Studies. His teaching and
research interests include black and indigenous social movements in
Latin America, race and gender, citizenship, environment and
development, and anthropological research methods. Specifically,
Dr. Loperena's scholarship examines Garifuna struggles
over land and cultural resources against the backdrop of neoliberal
tourism development on the Caribbean coast of Honduras. He has
collaborated on numerous studies with the Organización Fraternal
Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH) and the Caribbean and Central America
Research Council (CCARC). He was the Cesar Chávez Fellow in Latin
American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies (2011-12) at Dartmouth
College before assuming his position at the University of San
Francisco. Dr. Loperena has also received fellowships and research
support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Inter-American
Foundation. He is currently preparing a book manuscript based on
his dissertation field research.
