Laura Castro Diaz, PhD

Laura Castro Diaz

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CSUS - Natural Resources Management/ Environmental Science & Policy
Department of Community Sustainability

Hometown: Bogota, Colombia

Advisor: Maria Lopez

Laura is a doctoral student at the Department of Community Sustainability and the Environmental Science and Policy Program. Laura is also a scholar with the Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project (SMEP). She is interested in studying coupled human-environment interactions of fishing communities in Latin America. Particularly focusing on how these coupled systems are impacted by hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin. In her Master's thesis Laura explored the impacts generated by the Belo Monte Hydroelectric dam on the lives and livelihoods of fishers in a riverine community of the Xingu river from a gender perspective. Laura has been involved in interdisciplinary research projects using qualitative and quantitative methods with diverse ethnic rural communities in Colombia, Peru and Brazil. Prior to coming to MSU Laura received a B.S in Ecology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia.