Christopher Shaffer

Christopher A. Shaffer, Assistant Professor of Environmental Anthropology
Assistant Professor of Environmental Anthropology
[email protected]
612-624-3600
318 Hodson Hall

1980 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108
United States

christopherashaffer.com
Education

B.S. Anthropology and Human Biology – Emory University

M.A. Anthropology – Washington University in St. Louis

Ph.D. Biological Anthropology – Washington University in St. Louis

Areas of Interest

Human-wildlife interactions

Animal ecology

Hunting sustainability

Teaching

FW2001 Introductions to Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology

ESPM 3011W Environmental Ethics in Natural Resources

Research

As a biological/environmental anthropologist, my work focuses on the ecological and cultural interactions between humans and wildlife, particularly in the context of hunting and natural resource management. I am the co-director of the Konashen Ecosystem Health Project, where I collaborate with an Indigenous community called the Waiwai in Guyana, South America, to co-create methods for natural resource management that are commensurate with Indigenous worldviews and center community priorities. My work draws from multiple methodological and theoretical approaches within anthropology and ecology.

Select Publications

Shaffer, C.A., Milstein, M.S. (co-first authors), Lindsey, L., Wolf, T., Suse, P., Marawanaru, E., Kipp, E., Garwood, T., Travis, D., Terio, K., Larsen, P. (2022). Integrating Indigenous knowledge, ontology, and molecular barcoding to characterize spider monkey (Ateles paniscus) filariasis. International Journal of Primatology 43: 253-272

Shaffer, C.A. (2022). Quantifying primate resource dispersion with GIS: What is a patch? In Dolins, F., Shaffer, C.A., Hickey, J., Porter, L., and Nibbelink, N. (Eds.), Spatial Analysis in Field Primatology: Applying GIS at Varying Scales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 152-179.

Shaffer, C.A., Milstein, M. S., Yukuma, C., Marawanaru, E., Suse, P., Wolf, T., Travis, D. A. (2018). Integrating ethnography and hunting sustainability modeling for primate conservation in an Indigenous reserve in Guyana. International Journal of Primatology 39: 945-968.

Shaffer, C.A., Yukuma, C., Marawanaru, E., and Suse, P. (2018). Assessing the sustainability of Waiwai subsistence hunting in Guyana by comparison of static indices and spatially explicit, biodemographic models. Animal Conservation 21: 148-158.

Shaffer, C.A., Milstein, M.S., Yukuma, C., Marawanaru, E., and Suse, P. (2017). Sustainability and comanagement of subsistence hunting in an Indigenous reserve in Guyana. Conservation Biology 31: 119-1131.