Professor Wendy Wolford is awarded a fellowship

Wendy Wolford has been selected as a fellow for the 2004-2005 academic year at the Yale Program in Agrarian Studies. The program was established in 1991 under the direction of James Scott, professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. Every year, between four and six fellows are selected to work on projects related to the broad field of agrarian studies. Wendy's project, entitled "Social Mobilization and the Meaning(s) of Land on Sugarcane Plantations in Northeast Brazil" analyzes the ways in which the long history of sugarcane production has shaped land-labor relationships that, in turn, influence the political inclinations of plantation workers and elites. The two key issues at the center of the project are: i) how did the history of sugarcane production shape the rural workersĄŻ participation in the radical social movement, the Rural Landless Workers Movement which many joined in the mid-1990s; and ii) how has that experience of resistance (however minimal) altered the rural workersĄŻ understanding of politics, community, and the land?