Degrees prior to starting this degree program:

BA, International Studies, University of Chicago, 2017

MA, Anthropology, Columbia University, 2022

Areas of Interest:

Environmental anthropology, Political ecology, Environment and climate crisis, Knowledge and power, Anthropology of development, Mauritius and the Indian Ocean region

Field Research Plans/History:

Caryn Tin Powe Hoo is interested in the ways in which island vulnerability is discursively and materially produced, particularly in the context of sustainable development and the climate crisis. She is broadly interested in the relationship between societies and their environments. Her previous research explored how representations of islands—in a number of literary and artistic genres and in hegemonic discourses produced by international development experts—force island peoples into a victim slot, thereby opening them up to new forms of governance and control.