Lecturers

Research Interests

Dr. Estelí Jiménez-Soto is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of California Santa Cruz in the Department of Environmental Studies. Her research lies at the intersection of agroecology and political ecology of agriculture to understand the socioecological entanglements of food production and biodiversity conservation in Mexico and the US. Using a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches in ecology, anthropology and political ecology, Esteli studies the mechanisms that drive species interactions, and the role of environmental change and agricultural management on insect community dynamics, ecosystem functions, and the every-day lived experience of farmers and farmworkers in coffee agroecosystems. Currently she is working on a project to asess the barriers and opportunities to the adoption of agroecological practices in strawberry production in CA and FL. 

Honors, Awards and Grants

May 2013- Environmental Studies, departmental research grant 2013. University of California Santa Cruz.
April/2013- P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship 2013-2014.
September/ 2012- The Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) and UC-MEXUS Scholarship for Graduate Studies Abroad.
December/2011- Thesis dissertation qualified with honors by the Thesis Committee.
June/2011- First place of High Academic Achievement (generation 2006-2011), Autonomous University of Chapingo.
March/2011- First place at the: Premio Juventud Innovadora por su Ambiente in the individual research category in the National phase. México.
February/2011-

Selected Publications

1.     Jimenez-Soto, E. 2020. The political ecology of shaded coffee plantations: conflicts between conservation narratives and the everyday lived experience of farmworkers. Journal of Peasant Studies.

2.     Perfecto, I. Jimenez-Soto, E. Vandermeer, J. 2019. Coffee Landscapes Shaping the Anthropocene: A Socio-ecological Portrait of coffee Plantations in the Soconusco region of Chiapas, Mexico. Current Anthropology.

3.     Vandermeer J. Armbrecht, I. de la Mora… Jimenez-Soto E. 2019, The community ecology of herbivore regulation in an agroecosystem: lessons from complex systems. Bioscience.

4.     Jimenez-Soto, E. Morris, J. Letourneau, D. M. Philpott, S. M. 2019. Vegetation connectivity increases ant-provided biocontrol services in a tropical agroforest. Biotropica.

5.     Morris, J. R., E. Jiménez-Soto, S. M. Philpott, and I. Perfecto. 2018. Ant-mediated (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) biological control of the coffee berry borer: diversity, ecological complexity, and conservation biocontrol. Myrmecological News 26:1-17.

Teaching Interests

Agroecology, Political Ecology of Agriculture, Food Systems, Tropical Ecology, Insect Ecology, Community Ecology