Visiting Associate Professor of Geography and Sustainable
Development
Senior
Faculty Associate, Center for Community and
Economic Development
Program
Coordinator, Master of Secondary Education – Social Sciences Track
Division of Social Sciences and History
PO Box 3264, Kethley Hall 221
Delta State University
Cleveland, Mississippi 38733
Tel 610.348.3282 / Fax 662.846.4099 / mbonta@deltastate.edu / markabonta@yahoo.com
Dr. Bonta is originally from a ridgetop
above the Juniata Valley in central Pennsylvania, and has made his way back to
his home state after extended periods in Texas, Louisiana, the Yazoo—Mississippi
Delta, Honduras, Niger, and elsewhere. He has geography degrees from Penn State
(1990), University of Texas-Austin (1997), and Louisiana State University (2001).
He resides in Ardmore, PA and will be leaving DSU after the end of spring
semester 2013. For ongoing DSU degree programs and CCED projects, please
contact the Division chair, Dr. Paulette Meikle (pmeikleyaw@deltastate.edu). You can
continue to contact Dr. Bonta via Yahoo mail or telephone.
Current
projects
- ‘Biodiversity,
endemism, and community-conservation in northeastern Honduras,’ project of
ad hoc research/advocacy group
H.B.R.C. (see below)
- Biodiversity & endemism in unsurveyed
cloud forests of northeastern Honduras
(National Geography Society, Committee for Research and Exploration, grant
# 9080-12, 2012/13)
- Master of Arts in Liberal Studies
@ DSU. Chaired committee that successfully garnered this one-of-a-kind
degree for the state; currently overseeing Globalization Studies track
- Development
of Institute for
Environmental Justice and Community-based Conservation @ DSU
- IUCN – SSC Cycad
Specialist Group, Ethno-ecology subgroup
- Founding
member (2011) of Honduran Biodiversity Research Coalition
- ‘Natural
Areas of the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta’ (Book w/ Larry Pace, under contract
w/ University Press of Mississippi)
Research interests
- Environmental
justice & critical geographies of conservation and development
- Ethno-ornithology
& ethno-ecology
- Ethnobotany/cultural
geography: human uses of cycads; relationships between cycads and maize
cultivation in Mexico/Central America
- Historical
geography: Honduras; lower Mississippi Valley
- Geophilosophy
and Continental thought, Deleuze
Classes taught
- Lecture/Lab:
Introduction to Human Geography; World Regional Geography; Physical
Geography
- Upper-level
undergrad/grad seminars: Cultural Geography; Economic Geography;
Political Geography; Geography of Terrorism; Geography of Religions;
Natural Hazards; Globalization; Natural Resources Conservation
- Field
courses in the US South (Environmental History of the Delta; Historical
Geography of the Yazoo-Ms Delta), Guatemala, Honduras
- Regional
geography courses: Latin America; Africa; Middle East; Vietnam:
Politics and Policy
- Graduate
seminars: History of Geographic Thought; Professional Geography;
Advanced Research Methods in Geography; Trends in Teaching the Social
Sciences
Recent/upcoming talks
- Keynote
speaker, ‘Birds, Culture, and Conservation’ symposium, 26th International
Ornithological congress (Tokyo, 2014)
- ‘The
Cycad Eaters: Struggles for environmental justice in a northeastern
Honduran town’, Penn State Geography Coffee Hour (Sept 2012)
- ‘The Chortis Highlands:
biodiversity, endemism, and ethnoecology,’ seminar talk, Dept of Wildlife
Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida-Gainesville (Feb. 2012)
STudent NEWS
- Collette
Ray, Master of Arts in Liberal Studies candidate, is traveling to Peru in
November 2012 to hike the Inca Trail and received credit for GEO 689. She
will give a presentation on her experiences to the DSU MALS community in spring
2013
- James
Peavy, candidate for Master of Secondary Education in Social Science,
Geography track, plans to graduate in 2013 and will enter the seminary in
New Orleans. Peavy has travelled twice to China for independent study, and
has given a lecture on his research there to the DSU Gender Studies Group
- Aurelia
Vite, candidate for the Maestría en Ciencias en Biodiversidad y
Conservación, is completing her thesis ‘Etnobotánica de cícadas en
comunidades nahuas y mestizas de Tlanchinol, Hidalgo’ for presentation to
the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo by the end of 2012. It has
been a privilege to serve on her committee; her thesis is a
ground-breaking study in cycad ethnobotany and reveals important new links
between cycads and the cultivation of maize
- Five
students in the Master of Secondary Education-Social Science program (Frances
Nix, Patty Abraham, Eric Atchison, Damian Collins, John Weilenman)
successfully passed their comprehensive exams and graduated in 2012
SELECTED Publications
Ethno-ornithology / ornithogeography
(Forthcoming):
Gosler, A., S. Bhagwat, S. Harrop, M. Bonta & S.Tidemann. ‘Leading
and listening: Inspiration for conservation mission.’ Chap. 30 in Key Topics in
Conservation Biology, 2nd edition, D. MacDonald, ed. Blackwell.
Ethno-ornithology
and conservation. Chapter 2 in S. Tidemann & A. Gosler, eds. Ethno-ornithology: Birds and
indigenous people, culture and society. London, UK: Earthscan
Publications, 2010
On the
transmutation of human knowledge about birds in 16th-century Honduras. Chapter 8
in S. Tidemann & A. Gosler, eds. Ethno-ornithology: Birds and
indigenous people, culture and society. London, UK: Earthscan
Publications., 2010
Ornithophilia:
Thoughts on geography in birding. Geographical Review 100(2):139-151, 2010
Valorizing the relationships between people
and birds: Experiences and lessons from Honduras. Ornitologia Neotropical
19(Suppl.), The Neotropical Ornithological Society, 2008
Seven
Names for the Bellbird: Conservation Geography in Honduras. Texas A&M Press, College Station, 2003. Seven
Names for the Bellbird @ Amazon.com
ETHNOBOTANY / PLANT GEOGRAPHY
(Forthcoming, spring 2012): Cycads and human life cycles: Outline of a symbology. ‘Proceedings of Cycad 2008: The 8th International Congress on Cycad Biology’; D. W. Stevenson et al., eds. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden
Use
Value of Food Plants in the Xi’iuy Indigenous Community of Las Guapas,
Rayon, San Luis Potosi, Mexico (H.
Carbajal-Esquivel, J. Fortanelli Martínez, J. García-Pérez, J. A. Reyes-Agüero,
L. Yáñez-Espinosa, M. Bonta). Ethnobiology
Letters 3 (39-55), 2012
Ethnobotany of Honduran cycads. In A.P. Vovides, D.W. Stevenson & R.
Osborne (eds), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Cycad
Biology (Xalapa, Mexico, 2005). Memoirs of the
New York Botanical Garden 97: 120–142, 2007
Cycads
in the vernacular—a compendium of local names (Bonta,
M. & R. Osborne). In A.P. Vovides, D.W. Stevenson & R. Osborne (eds),
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Cycad Biology (Xalapa, Mexico, 2005). Memoirs of the New York Botanical
Garden 97: 143–175, 2007
An
emended description of Dioon mejiae Standl (Haynes,
J.L. & M. Bonta). In A.P. Vovides, D.W. Stevenson & R. Osborne
(eds), Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Cycad Biology
(Xalapa, Mexico, 2005). Memoirs of the New
York Botanical Garden 97: 418–443, 2007
Ethnobotany
and conservation of Tiusinte (Dioon mejiae Standl. & L. O. Williams,
Zamiaceae) in Northeastern Honduras (Bonta, M., O. Flores Pinot, D. Graham, J.
Haynes, & G. Sandoval). Journal of Ethnobiology 26(2):
Fall/Winter, 2006
geophilosophy
(Forthcoming): We’re tired of
trees’: Machinic university geography
teaching after Deleuze. Chapter in I. Semetsky
& D. Masny, eds., ‘Deleuze and Education,’ upcoming book from
Edinburgh University Press
Rhizome of
Boehme and Deleuze / Esoteric precursors of the god of complexity. SubStance 39(1):62-75, 2010
The multitude and its
döppelganger: An exploration of global smooth space. ACME: An
International E-journal for Critical Geographies 8(2):245-277 (in “Geographies of the Multitude” special issue,
ed. J. Lepofsky), 2009
Taking Deleuze
into the field: Machinic ethnography for the social sciences. Review
essay in Deleuze Studies 3:135-142,
2009
Deleuze
and Space, invited review.
(Eds. I. Buchanan & G. Lambert, U Toronto Press, 2005), Annals of the
Association of American Geographers 97(4): 811-813, 2007
‘Geography’ (pp. 243-246) & ‘Lefebvre, Henri’ (pp. 356-357). Entries in the Edinburgh
Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, Edinburgh University Press (J.
Protevi, ed.), 2005. Published by Yale University Press as A
Dictionary of Continental Philosophy,
2006
Deleuze
and Geophilosophy: A Guide and Glossary (Bonta, M. and J. Protevi). Edinburgh University Press & Columbia
University Press, 2004. Extract
from 'Deleuze and Geophilosophy' (page 3); Deleuze
and Geophilosophy @ Amazon.com
ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE / CONSERVATION GEOGRAPHY
Invited
review of Molly Todd, Beyond Displacement: Campesinos, Refugees, and Collective Action in the
Salvadoran Civil War. Journal
of Historical Geography, 38(1):105-106, Jan. 2012
Cycad
conservation, peasant subsistence, and the military coup in Honduras (Graham, D.
& M. Bonta). Society and Natural
Resources 24(2): 193-200, 2011
Invited review of Deleuze
and Environmental Damage: Violence of the Text (M. Halsey, Ashgate,
Advances in Criminology series, 2006). Geographical Review 98(4):573-576, 2008
Becoming-forest,
becoming-local: Transformations of a protected area in Honduras. Geoforum 36(1):95-112, 2005. In
special themed issue, ‘Critical Geographies of the Caribbean and Latin America’
(Eds. P. Kingsbury & B. Sletto)
Death
toll one: An ethnography of hydropower and human rights violations in Honduras. GeoJournal 60(1):19-30, 2004. In
special themed issue, ‘Interrogating the Globalization Project’ (Ed. R. Honey)
Jealous conservationists: Terratenientes and
wildlife protection in Olancho, Honduras.
In ‘Cultural and Physical Expositions: Geographic Studies in the Southern
United States and Latin America’ (Eds. M. Steinberg & P. Hudson), Geoscience
and Man 36:87-95. LSU: Geoscience and Man Publications, 2002
CULTURal-historical
geography
The
“Tambla” (Humuya) gomphothere (Honduras): The first report of fossil
vertebrates in Central America
(Lucas, S. G., M. Bonta, R. Rogers, & G. F. Alvarado). Revista
Geológica de América Central
44:141-151, 2011
‘Tierra del oro y del talento cuna’: Causas
y consecuencias del destino que se manifestó en los mapas hondureños de William
V. Wells.
Boletín
de la AFEHC No. 48, January 2011, Asociación para el Fomento de los Estudios
Históricos en Centroamérica. Special edition, Los mapas en la historia
centroamericana, guest editor Karl Offen.
The
dilemma of indigenous identity construction: The case of the newly-recognized
Nahoa of Olancho, Honduras. Temas de Geografía Latinoamericana, Reunión CLAG-Morelia, pp. 49-86, P. S. Urquijo Torres & N. Barrera-Bassols, eds. Publ.
by: Centro de Investigaciones en Geográfia Ambiental, Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México, Campus Morelia; Instituto Nacional de Ecología, Secretaría
de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales; Conference of Latin Americanists
Geographers; Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de Estado de Michoacán. 2009
On Olancho:
Geographers, spatial identities, and the construction of a region. P. H.
Herlihy, K. Mathewson, & C. S. Revels, eds., ‘Ethno- and Historical
Geographic Studies in Latin America: Essays Honoring William V. Davidson.’ Geoscience
and Man 40:193-206. LSU:
Geoscience Publications, 2008
REFEREEING
Dr. Bonta referees
manuscripts on/involving Deleuze and Guattari, ethno-ornithology, Honduras, ivory-billed
woodpeckers, and cycads for Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, Bulletin
for Latin American Research Cotinga, Ecological Modelling, Emotion,
Space & Society, Geographical Review, HortScience, Journal of Field Ornithology, Journal of Historical Geography, Journal
of Latin American Geography, Louisiana
State University Press, Mesoamerica, Micronesica, Ornitologia
Neotropical, Planning Theory, Political Geography, Professional
Geographer, Society and Natural Resources, Society and Space, Southeastern Naturalist, University Press of Mississippi
Recent evaluation and expert witness activity
Principal
evaluator, Developing Personal Wealth
(2011-2012) program extension, Center for Community and Economic Development,
DSU, funded by the Foundation for the Mid-South
Independent contractor, Indianola
Promise Project Needs
Assessment (2011), Delta State University, funded by the Delta
Health Alliance and Southern Research Group
Expert
witness research/testimony. Cases involving Hondurans in US federal immigration
courts are regularly reviewed and researched. Subjects include petitions for
political asylum and other proceedings against removal based on gender
discrimination, gang membership, environmental activism, and other human rights
issues
Copyright 2011-2013