Alder Keleman Saxena

Alder Keleman Saxena is an environmental anthropologist whose research explores the relationships linking agricultural biodiversity to food culture and nutritional health in the Bolivian Andes. In her research, she uses a mixed-methods, biocultural approach, which combines ethnography, ethnobotany, and public health nutrition. Her dissertation, for which she was awarded her PhD in 2017, explores the meanings of indigenous foods and foodways in contemporary Bolivia, specifically as they relate to the changing role of indigenous ethnic identity in the public sphere. Dovetailing with these questions of social meaning, Alder’s research also examines the role of agrobiodiversity in household food security, and the potential for broader social changes to act as drivers for agrobiodiversity conservation. As a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University, in Aarhus, Denmark, she co-directs Feral Atlas, an experimental online publication at the interface of the environmental and digital humanities. She continues to pursue these projects as a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Yale Program in Agrarian Studies during fall 2017.