Biography

Andrew Walsh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. His recently completed research concerning the parallel rise of northern Madagascar’s sapphire and ecotourism industries is summarized in the ethnography Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism and the Global Bazaar (University of Toronto Press, 2012). His current research focuses on the ethical entanglements that accompany the development and operation of small-scale (“do-it-yourself”) conservation, development and humanitarian ventures in Madagascar.

Selected publications:

2015      Lost and/or Left Behind in a Malagasy Outpost of the ‘Underworld of Gemstones’. Critique of Anthropology 35(1):30-46.

2013      Gems of Ankarana: The commodification and generification of Madagascar’s natural wonders. In The Ecotourism/Extraction Nexus: Political Economies and Rural Realities of (un)Comfortable Bedfellows. Bram Büscher and Veronica Davidov, eds. New York: Routledge. Pp. 35-54.

2012      Made in Madagascar: Sapphires, Ecotourism and the Global Bazaar. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

2012      After the Rush: Living With Uncertainty in a Malagasy Mining Town. Africa 82(2):235-251.

2010      The Commodification of Fetishes: Telling the Difference between Natural and Synthetic Sapphires. American Ethnologist 37(1): 98-114.