My research explores human-environment interactions through anthropological and transdisciplinary methods. I integrate theoretical insights from environmental governance, political ecology, and ecological and economic anthropology. Drawing on these foundational approaches, my current projects examine pathways toward sustainability in mountain social-ecological systems through transdisciplinary and decolonizing approaches. Through a longitudinal project in Honduras, I am working with coffee cooperatives to assess farmers’ strategies to improve livelihoods and environmental sustainability in contexts of climate change and political economic crises. As part of a global research coordination network, I am collaborating with mountain communities and researchers to integrate western and Indigenous/traditional knowledges to support climate change resilience, commons governance, and community-based natural resource management. More broadly, my work investigates connections among global change processes, biocultural conservation, belief systems, and human rights.
2025-26 President, International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC)
2023-25 Vice Chair, Scientific Advisory Group, Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems Program, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO-GIAHS)
2020-22 Associate Director of Academic Affairs, Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida
2017- Professor, Department of Anthropology & Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida
2015-17 Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology & Center for Latin American Studies, University of Florida
2012-15 Chair, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington
2009-15 Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington
2004-15 Affiliate Faculty, Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory & Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington
2003-09 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Indiana University
1996-03 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population and Environmental Change, Indiana University, Bloomington
1996 PhD, Anthropology, University of Arizona
1987 MA, Anthropology, University of Massachusetts
1983 BA, Interdisciplinary Major: Anthropology, Biology and Philosophy, Gustavus Adolphus College
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
Tucker, C.M. and M.E. Pérez Zelaya. 2023. Fostering sustainability through environmentally friendly coffee production and alternative trade: The case of Café Orgánico de Marcala (COMSA), Honduras. Critique of Anthropology 43:231-251. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308275X231194253
Tucker, C.M., M. Smid Hribar, M. Urbanc, N. Bogataj, A. Gunya, R. Rodela, M. Sigura, and L. Piani. 2023. Governance of interdependent ecosystem services and common-pool resources. Land Use Policy 127:106575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106575
Thorn, J., J.A. Klein, C. Steger, K.A. Hopping, C. Capitani, R. Marchant, C.M. Tucker, A. W. Nolin, R. S. Reid. 2021. Global Mountain social-ecological systems scenario archetypes synthesized from local perspectives. Global Environmental Change. 69: 102291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102291
Tucker, C.M., I. Alcántara-Ayala, A. Gunya, E. Jiménez, J. A. Klein, J. Xu, S. Bigler. 2021. Challenges for Governing Mountains Sustainably: Results of a Global Survey. 2021. Mountain Research and Development. 41(2). https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-20-00080.1
Klein, J.A.; C.M. Tucker; A.W. Nolin; K.A. Hopping; R.S. Reid; C. Steger; A. Grêt- Regamey; S. Lavorel; B. Müller; E.T. Yeh; R.B. Boone; P. Bourgeron; V. Butsic; E. Castellanos; X. Chen; S.K. Dong; G. Greenwood; M. Keiler; R. Marchant; R. Seidl; T. Spies; J. Thorn; K. Yager; and the Mountain Sentinels Network. 2019. Catalyzing Transformations to Sustainability in the World’s Mountains. Earth’s Future 7(5):547-557. URL: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF001024
Rodela, R., C.M. Tucker, M. Smid-Hribar, M. Sigura, N. Bogataj, M. Urbanc, A. Gunya. 2019. Intersections of ecosystem services and common-pool resources literature: An interdisciplinary encounter. Environmental Science & Policy 94:72-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2018.12.021
Klein, J. A., C.M. Tucker, C.E. Steger, A. Nolin, R. Reid, K.A. Hopping, E.T. Yeh, M.S. Pradhan, A. Taber, D. Molden, R. Ghate, D. Choudhury, I. Alcántara-Ayala, S. Lavorel, B. Müller, A. Grêt-Regamey, R.B. Boone, P. Bourgeron, E. Castellanos, X. Chen, S. Dong, M. Keiler, R. Seidl, J. Thorn, and K. Yager. 2019. An integrated community and ecosystem-based approach to disaster risk reduction in mountain systems. Environmental Science & Policy 94:143-152.URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2018.12.034
Tucker, C. M. 2014. Creating equitable water institutions on disputed land: A Honduran case study. Water International 39(2):216-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2014.888986
Castellanos, E., C. Tucker, H. Eakin, H. Morales, J. Barrera and R. Diaz. 2013. Assessing the Adaptation Strategies of Farmers Facing Multiple Stressors: Lessons from the Coffee and Global Changes Project in Mesoamerica. Environmental Science and Policy 26:19-28. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901112000974
Tucker, C. M., H. Eakin, and E. Castellanos. 2010. Perceptions of Risk and Adaptation: Coffee producers, market shocks and extreme weather in Central America and Mexico. Global Environmental Change 20:23-32. Published online August 2009. URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378009000478
Books & Edited Volumes:
Tucker, C.M. 2017. Coffee Culture: Local Experiences, Global Connections. Second Edition. New York: Routledge Press. (Substantially updated including 3 new chapters)
Arabic Translation: 2024. Saudi Arabia: King Abdulaziz Public Library, Saudi Arabia
Tucker, C.M. 2011. Coffee Culture: Local Experiences, Global Connections. First Edition. New York: Routledge Press.
Tucker, C. M., Editor. 2012. Nature, Science and Religion: Intersections shaping society and the environment. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research (SAR) Press
Tucker, C. M. 2008. Changing Forests: Collective Action, Common Property and Coffee in Honduras. New York: Springer Academic Press.
Peer-reviewed Book Chapters:
Tucker, C.M. and A. Gunya. 2024. “Mountain Governance.” In Mountain Lexicon: A Corpus of Montology and Innovation. F. Sarmiento, A. Gunya, and I. Alcántara-Ayala, eds. Springer Academic Press and IGU Commission on Mountain Studies. Pp. 173-180.
Klein J.A., C. Tucker, T. Roane, A. Nolin, R. Reid, C. Steger, A. Cuni-Sanchez, J. Thorn. 2024. “The role of networks in safeguarding mountain futures: Insights from the Mountain Sentinels Collaborative Network” (Ch. 23). In Safeguarding Mountain Social-Ecological Systems, Vol.1. S. Schneiderbauer, P. Fontanella Pisa, J. Shroder, J. Szarzynski, eds. Elsevier.
Callicott, C. and C.M. Tucker 2019. “Marketing Organic Food in the USA.” In Organic Food, Farming and Culture. J. Chrzan and J. Ricotta, eds. Pp. 265-276. Bloomsbury Press.
Tucker, C.M. 2017. “Methods for Examining Food Commodity Chains in Conventional and Alternative Trade.” In Food Culture: Anthropology, Linguistics and Food Studies. J. Brett and J. Chrzan, eds. Pp. 239-252. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Academic Books.
Farinaci, J., T. Ruseva, C.M. Tucker, T. Evans, M. Batistella. 2014. “Humans as agents of change in forest landscapes.” In Forest Landscapes and Global Change, J. Azevedo, ed. Pp. 75-105. New York: Springer Academic Press.
Tucker, C.M. 2013. “Institutional Evolution, Forest Conservation, and Rapid Change in Rural Honduras.” In Human-Environment Interactions: Current and future directions. E.Brondizio and E. Moran, eds. Pp.275-295. Dordrecht: Springer Science + Business Media.
Tucker, C.M. 2012. “Smallholder Coffee Farmers, the Coffee Crisis and Neoliberal Policy: Disjunctures in Knowledge and Conundrums for Development.” In Central America in the New Millennium: Living Transition and Rethinking Democracy. J. Burrell and E. Moodie, eds. Pp. 163-184. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books.
Tucker, C.M. and A. Ivakhiv. 2012. “Intersections of Nature, Science and Religion: An Introduction.” In Nature, Science and Religion: Intersections shaping society and the environment. C. M. Tucker, ed. Pp. 3-22. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.
Tucker, C.M. 2012. “Syncretism and Conservation: Examining Indigenous Beliefs and Natural Resource Management in Honduras” In Nature, Science and Religion: Intersections shaping society and the environment. C. M. Tucker, ed. Pp. 107-128. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press.
Tucker, C. M. and E. Ostrom. 2005. “Institutional Analysis in Multidisciplinary Research on Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change.” In Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Human-Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems, E. F. Moran and E. Ostrom, eds. Pp. 81-103. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
