Researchers

Lucero’s research seeks to bring environmental anthropology to the city. Her dissertation, “Alley Flows: The Political Ecology of Urban Infrastructure,” speaks to pressing concerns regarding the impact that long-term drought and accelerated urban growth have on urban livelihoods and water accessibility, especially for minority groups already at the margins of hydraulic development. In Hermosillo, Sonora, water scarcity is a central issue in state politics and part of people’s daily experience. Lucero’s research project analyzes how urban indigenous Yaqui neighborhoods organize and mobilize to address their need for water infrastructure. Her work integrates in-depth ethnographic fieldwork, community-mapping exercises, and discourse analysis of Sonora’s current hydraulic plan. — Beyond my dissertation, my research interests also include environmental expertise, ethno-ecology, and environmental history.