Specialization:
Sociocultural Anthropology
Education:
M.A. Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara (2025)
M.A. Latin American Studies, The University of Arizona (2023)
B.S. Earth & Space Exploration (Astrobiology & Biogeosciences) - Arizona State University (2021)
B.A. Anthropology - Arizona State University (2021)
Bio:
I employ ethnographic methods, the environmental humanities, and critical approaches to infrastructure and tourism to analyze the political ecology of marine conservation, food systems, and outdoor recreation across North America. My dissertation investigates the socioecological dynamics and affective entanglements among ecotourists, fishers, conservationists, and marine life along the Pacific gray whale migration path between coastal Alaska and Baja California Sur. This research has been supported by several sources including the National Science Foundation (GRFP), the Law and Science Dissertation Grant, and the Culture & Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). Beyond my dissertation, I also conduct work that examines mezcal production in Southern Mexico and the environmental impacts of outdoor recreation. This includes the forthcoming co-edited volume Drinking to Remember: Anthropological Engagements with the Collective Memory of Beverages (under contract, University Press of Florida). Alongside my research, I serve as Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of Political Ecology, Graduate Student Representative for the Council on Heritage and the Anthropology of Tourism, Convener for the AAA Student Council, and a member of the AAA Climate Change Task Force 2.0.
Research:
Political Ecology of Conservation & Affect Maritime & Fisheries Anthropology
Posthumanism Pacific Coast of Mexico & the Americas
Critical Tourism Studies
Critical Infrastructure Studies
Publications:
J.W. Dean, “Do whales really want to be watched? Ecotourism marketing, green capitalism, and the subjective narrative of whale-watching in the Pacific lagoons of Baja California Sur,” book chapter accepted in Unsettling Conservation (forthcoming), Colorado University Press.
J.W. Dean, “Fake snow, faking sustainability: Host selection and the Winter Olympics’ growing reliance on artifical snow ahead of Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo 2026,” The Journal of Olympic Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 46–65, 2025.
J.W. Dean & J. Parks, “The framing of Indigenous and local ecological knowledge amidst climate change education in the COP27 cyberspace,” Climate & Development, vol. 16, no. 10, pp. 918–929, 2024.
J.W. Dean, A.M. Rice, L.M. Choi, “Small-Scale Food Production in the Pandemic: Perspectives from Mexico & Guatemala,” in Journal of Latin American Geography, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 215–226, 2023.
Dean, J. W. (2023). Cesando la Sal: A Social Ecology of Conservation-as-Development and Pacific Gray Whale Ecotourism in El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, México [Master’s Thesis, The University of Arizona]. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/668385
P. Whelley et al., “The Importance of Field Studies for Closing Key Knowledge Gaps in Planetary Science,” Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, vol. 53, no. 4, White Paper #165 of the NASA Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032, Mar 2021.
Courses:
Associate Instructor - ANTH 109: Human Universals (Summer 2024, Summer 2025, Summer 2026)
