Nature and Purpose of Course:

Ecuador has one of the most biodiverse regions in the world with varying degrees of human involvement and use. This course offers students a reflexive and historically situated immersion into scientific field research and multiple ecosystems.

Students will begin their exploration at 9,300 feet in the Andes mountains in the capital city of Quito at the University of San Francisco Quito (USFQ). Quito has undergone a series of major transformations in the past 500 years, and students will explore the societal and environmental impacts of those transformations. Next, students will spend several days in the cloud forests of the western slope of the Andes, marveling at the immense biodiversity and diverse human livelihoods found there. They will then move on to the high paramo ecosystem, above treeline, where humans, plants and animals must use creative adaptations to survive. We will move eastward from there to the edge of the Amazon, and investigate modern and traditional food systems and livelihoods and their impacts on and interactions with the natural environment. Last, students will travel deep into the Amazon rainforest where little has changed since Europeans first encountered and attempted to describe the dazzling array of flora and fauna found there.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze and reflect on the colonialist history and present of exploration of Ecuador by European naturalists and scientists as a participant observer in this process.

• Practice ethnographic methods by engaging in participant observation, interviewing, and surveys.

• Practice ethnographic writing in quotidian intervals.

• Participate in and critically evaluate the present-day study of the rich ecosystems and biodiversity of the Andean mountains and Amazon forest.

• Understand the interrelationships between science, culture, and the flora and fauna of both montane ecosystems and the Amazon region, including how these environments are used by indigenous people and modern society.