Dr. Cynthia S. Simmons

Professor

Affiliate Faculty, Center for Latin American Studies (LATAM)(opens in new tab)

Affiliate Faculty, Master of sustainable Development Practice

ORCID

Focus Areas

Research Statement

The conceptual lens for my research is derived primarily from a political economy approach. In particular, I focus attention on the manner in which social processes interact across a multiplicity of scales (i.e, individual, local, regional, national, global), and the impact these interactions have on local environments and social conditions. The theoretical underpinning of my work emphasizes the local, and considers the importance of Place as essential to understanding social and environmental problems. In an effort to examine the place-specific nature of these problems, the research strategy I employ combines both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, utilizing data and insight gained from field investigation involving household surveys and key informant interviews.

Recent Courses

  • Human Environment Seminar – Graduate Level
  • Human Geography Seminar – Graduate Level
  • Advanced Readings in Human Geography – Space, Place, and Power – Graduate Level
  • Gender Justice and Environmental Change – Theory Seminar – Graduate Level
  • Geography of Development and Environment – Graduate and Undergraduate
  • Cultural Geography -Undergraduate
  • People and Environment Geography – Undergraduate
  • World Regional Geography – Undergraduate
  • Latin American Geography – Undergraduate

Recent Funded Projects

  • 2021-2025. Co‐Principal Investigator. DISES: Resilient Socio‐Environmental Systems: Indigenous Territories in the Face of Change. Dynamics of Integrated Socio‐ Environmental Systems, National Science Foundation. US$998,682.
  • 2016-2019. International Trade Agreements, Globalization, Land Change, and Agricultural Food Networks.” Simmons, Co-PI. $375,000. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation
  • 2013-2017. Tenure and Global Climate Change. Simmons, C. S. (Co-Principal Investigator). Co-PIs: Qi, J., McKeown, C., Kerr, J., Lu, D., Messina, J., Moran, E., Zulu, L., Maxwell, S., Schultink, G., Kassens Noor, E., Nejadhashemi, A. TETRA TECH INC/USAID. $821,435
  • 2012-2015. Collaborative Research: Contentious Land Change in the Eastern Amazon. Simmons, C. S., Aldrich, S., Arima, E., Walker, R. T. National Science Foundation, Geography and Spatial Sciences Program. $157,529
  • 2010-2014. Globalization: Socio-economic, Political, and Environmental Interdependence. Simmons, C. S. (Project Leader, Lead Principal Investigator). Co-PIs: Aldrich, S. (Indiana State University), Schneider, H. (Federal University of Pará – UFPA), Almeida, G. (Federal University of Bahia – UFBA). US-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program, jointly administered by U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), Brazilian Ministry of Education. $493,000
  • 2010-2011. The Transamazon at 40: A Generation Comes of Age. Simmons, C. S. (Co-Principal Investigator). Walker, R.T. National Science Foundation. $7,000
  • 2005-2008. Collaborative Research: Brazil’s Direct Action Land Reform: Spatial Strategies and Environmental Effects. Simmons, C. S. (Project Leader, Lead Principal Investigator). Co-PIs: Walker, R. T., Qi, J., Perz, S. G. National Science Foundation. $250,000

Recent Publications

Correia, J. E., Walker, R. T., Simmons, C. S., Urgilés, C., Narváez Quenama, N., Yiyocuro, L., ... & Esbach, M. (2025). Biocultural Geographies: Stewardship, Indigenous Territories, and Conservation in Ecuador’s Amazon. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 115(10), 2483-2501.

Correia, J. E., Piaguage Lucitante, J., Weiss, L., Narváez, N., Lucitante, L., Biaguaje, A., ... & Esbach, M. (2025). Stimulating reciprocity: How human–plant relations support Indigenous cultural revitalization and stewardship in the Ecuadorian Amazon. People and Nature, 7(5), 1151-1170.

da Silva, R. F. B., Millington, J. D., Carodenuto, S., Simmons, C. S., Andriamihaja, O. R., Schilling-Vacaflor, A., ... & Ingram, V. (2024). Harvesting dilemmas. One Earth, 7(7), 1134-1136.

Fung, C. Y., Peter, B. G., & Simmons, C. S. (2023). Habitat Mapping and Spatiotemporal Overlap of the Amazon River Dolphin, Fishers, and Tourism in the Central Region of the Brazilian Amazon. Conservation, 3(4), 523-542.

Simmons, C., Astier, M., Walker, R., Navia-Antezana, J. F., Gao, Y., Galván-Miyoshi, Y., & Klooster, D. (2023). Forest transition and fuzzy environments in neoliberal Mexico. Land, 12(4), 840.

da Costa Almeida, R., da Silva, C. N., da Silva, J. M. P., de Carvalho Antunes, A., Simmons, C. S., & Soares, D. A. S. (2023). Large mining projects and socio-environmental impacts: economic and socio-environmental dynamics in Barcarena (Pará, Brazil). Journal of Service Science and Management, 16, 567-591.

Carrero, G. C., Walker, R. T., Simmons, C. S., & Fearnside, P. M. (2022). Land grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon: Stealing public land with government approval. Land Use Policy, 120, 106133.

Galvan-Miyoshi, Y., Simmons, C., Walker, R., Osorio, G. A., Hernandez, P. M., Maldonado-Simán, E., ... & Waylen, M. (2022). Globalized supply chains: Emergent telecouplings in Mexico’s beef economy and environmental leakages. Global Environmental Change, 74, 102486.

Antunes, A., Simmons, C. S., & Veiga, J. P. (2021). Non-timber forest products and the cosmetic industry: An econometric assessment of contributions to income in the Brazilian Amazon. Land, 10(6), 588.

Educational Background

  • Ph.D. in Geography, Florida State University, 1999
  • M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning, Florida State University, 1995
  • M.A. in International Affairs, Latin American Studies, Florida State University, 1993
  • B.A. in Communications, Pre-Law, and Latin American Studies, Florida State University, 1990

Current Graduate Students

PhD

Recent Graduate Students

  • Dr. Aghane De Carvalho Antunes (M.S., 2019, Ph.D., 2025 UF)
  • Dr. Alexandra Sabo (Ph.D., 2021, UF)
  • Dr. Aline Carrara (Ph.D., 2020, UF)
  • Dr. Maira Irigaray Castro (Ph.D., 2020, UF)
  • Dr. Cadi Fung (Ph.D., 2019, MSU)
  • Michael Waylen (M.A., 2017, UF)
  • Dr. Ritaumaria Pereira (Ph.D., 2012, MSU)
  • Audrey Joslin (M.S., 2008, MSU)