/filters:quality(85)/prod02/channel_1/t4_pending/media/faculty/Laura-Yoder-1000X1200.png)
Biography
Dr. Yoder enjoys connecting students and colleagues with international partners around shared commitments to Christian service, mutual learning, and community-based research. As a political ecologist, she is keenly interested in the socio-legal and faith dimensions of environmental issues worldwide – especially in remote villages and urban centers of Latin America and Southeast Asia. Most of her work has been alongside smallholder farmers and forest dwellers in situations of conflict, disaster, or political marginalization. Since 2001, Dr. Yoder’s ongoing research in Timor-Leste examines how customary and state authorities interact regarding land and forests.
Her deep appreciation for experiential intercultural learning as both student and professor across many disciplines started early, with a childhood of playing outside and friendships with refugee neighbors. During high school she studied humanities A-Levels in central London, followed by many field courses in environmental science and her senior year of college in Ecuador. Graduate studies in Honduras, Australia, and Timor-Leste prepared her for university assignments with Mennonite Central Committee teaching local students’ field-based research programs in state universities of West Papua and post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia. Other highlights include learning alongside her students in environmental field studies programs in Thailand, Indiana, Bhutan, and worldwide on a sea-based semester; on Spain’s Camino de Santiago; and with Human Needs and Global Resources (HNGR) interns worldwide.
Favorite activities include writing, biking and hiking in forest shade, swimming outdoors, using her garden produce all year, hosting guests and themed gatherings, and visiting her home area of southeastern Pennsylvania. She also enjoys languages, tropical fruits, ethnobotany, family game nights, and asking questions.
Education
Yale University
Ph.D., Forestry & Environmental Studies (Social Ecology)
Cornell University (USA) and the Zamorano Pan-American School of Agriculture (Honduras)
M.P.S. (Agr.), International Agriculture and Rural Development
Messiah College
B.A., Natural Science-Biology
Areas of Expertise
- Experiential Learning
- Political Ecology
- International Development
- Southeast Asia
Professional Affiliations
- International Association for the Study of the Commons
- Asian Borderlands Research Network
- American Anthropological Association
- Society for Economic Botany
Research Interests
- Resource access in situations of conflict, disaster, and political marginalization
- Livelihood strategies of smallholder farmers, swiddeners, and forest dwellers
- Faith dimensions of human-nature relationships
- Cross-cultural and experiential learning
- Seed systems and biodiversity
Selected Publications
Berry, R.J. (Sam) with Laura S. Meitzner Yoder. 2021. John Stott on creation care. London: Inter-Varsity Press.
Meitzner Yoder, Laura S., ed. 2021. Living radical discipleship. Carlisle: Langham.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2021. “Seeing God’s World: Proximity and Political Ecology within the Lordship of Christ.” Pp. 93-107 in Living Radical Discipleship, ed. Laura S. Meitzner Yoder. Carlisle: Langham.
“Loving our Future Neighbour: Earthkeeping as Christian Witness,” November 2021. John Stott London Lecture.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2020. “Genealogy of colonial land registration and state land in Portuguese Timor.” European Legacy 25(5):519-534.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. and J.G. Huff, Jr. 2020. “The best education happens around the table: Four decades of ‘Mennonite Dinner’ in Wheaton, Illinois.” Journal of Mennonite Studies 36:133-153.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. and S.F. Joireman. 2019. “Possession and precedence: Juxtaposing customary and legal events to establish land authority.” Feature paper in Special Issue on Land Restitution. Land 8(8):126.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2019. “From ‘Special treatment’ to a Special Economic Zone: Antecedents to ZEESM in the Oecusse-Ambeno enclave.” Pp. 110-123 in Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Timor Leste, eds. Andrew McWilliam and Michael Leach. London and New York: Routledge.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2018. “Economic techno-politics of development in the Oecusse-Ambeno enclave, Timor-Leste.” In Special Issue on Megaprojects and National Development Models in Timor-Leste, guest editors J. Bovensiepen and L.S. Meitzner Yoder. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 19(5):395-411.
Bovensiepen, J. and Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2018. “Introduction: The Political Dynamics and Social Effects of Megaproject Development” to Special Issue on Megaprojects and National Development Models in Timor-Leste. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 19(5):381-394.
Depenthal, J. and L.S. Meitzner Yoder. 2018. “Community Use and Knowledge of Algarrobo (Prosopis pallida) and Implications for Peruvian Dry Forest Conservation.” Revista de Ciencias Ambientales/Tropical Journal of Environmental Sciences 52(1):49-70.
Browne, Katherine E., Caela O’Connell, and Laura S. Meitzner Yoder. 2018. “Journey Through the Groan Zone with Academics and Practitioners: Bridging Conflict and Difference to Strengthen Disaster Risk Reduction and Recovery Work.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Science 9:421-428.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2018. “Piloting the experimental ZEESM megaproject: Performing the future in the Oecusse-Ambeno enclave.” Pp. 85-98 in The Promise of Prosperity: Visions of the Future in Timor-Leste, ed. Judith Bovensiepen. Acton: Australian National University Press.
Fountain, Philip and Laura S. Meitzner Yoder. 2018. “Quietist Techno-politics: Agricultural Development and Mennonite Mission in Indonesia.” Pp. 214-242 in The Mission of Development: Religion and Techno-Politics in Asia, eds. Catherine Scheer, and Philip Fountain, and Michael Feener. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
Meitzner Yoder, Laura S. 2018. “Foreword.” Pp. xii-xiii in People Disrupted: Doing Mission Responsibly among Refugees and Migrants, eds. Jinbong Kim, Dwight P. Baker, Jonathan J. Bonk, J. Nelson Jennings, Jae Hoon Lee. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. 2017. “Reconceptualizing land and territory in Oecusse-Ambeno enclave’s Special Economic Zone (ZEESM), Timor-Leste.” Pp. 142-155 in Transformations in Independent Timor-Leste: Dynamics of Social and Cultural Cohabitations, ed. Susana de Matos Viegas and Rui Graça Feijó. London and New York: Routledge.
Meitzner Yoder, L.S., Sonam Phuntsho, A.J. Conrad, Hannah Doren, Rachel Haney, Christina Johantgen, Sarah Miller, Zoe Reich-Aviles, Annalise Ritter, and Greg Zegas. 2017. “From farmers to foresters? Pine encroachment on former swidden fields in Choekkhor Valley, Bumthang district, Bhutan.” Pp. 449-459 in Shifting Cultivation Policies: Balancing Environmental and Social Sustainability, ed. M. Cairns. Wallingford: CABI.
Meitzner Yoder, Laura S., 2016. "The formation and remarkable persistence of the Oecusse-Ambeno enclave, Timor," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
Joireman, Sandra and L.S. Meitzner Yoder, 2016. "A Long Time Gone: Post-conflict Rural Property Restitution under Customary Law," Development and Change
Meitzner Yoder, Laura S., 2015. "The development eraser: Fantastical schemes, aspirational distractions and high modern mega-events in the Oecusse enclave, Timor Leste," Journal of Political Ecology
Sears, R.S., and L.S. Meitzner Yoder, 2014. "Fostering Students' Commitment to Service Through International Field Research," Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly
Meitzner Yoder, L.S., 2014. "Interruptions are not distractions: Lessons from teaching in faith-steeped conflict zones of Southeast Asia," Faithful is Successful: Notes to the Driven Pilgrim
L. Zinn, J. Schramm and L.S. Meitzner Yoder, 2014. "Towards a deeper understanding of native and introduced species," Teaching about Invasive Species
Meitzner Yoder, L.S., T.C. Hartzell, J.W. Schramm, and L.R. Zinn, 2013. "Building and boarding a bigger boat together: Learning about sustainability through direct encounters with diverse people in our watershed," Journal of Sustainability Education
Gill, T.B., R. Bates, A. Bicksler, R. Burnette, V. Ricciardi, and L.S.M. Yoder, 2013. "Strengthening informal seed systems to enhance food security in Southeast Asia," Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development
Meitzner Yoder, L.S., T.C. Hartzell, J.W. Schramm, and L.R. Zinn., 2013. "Building and boarding a bigger boat together: Learning about sustainability through direct encounters with diverse people in our watershed," Journal of Sustainability Education
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. and A. Bicksler, 2012. "Using institutional arrangements to teach undergraduates about the commons in Thailand, and beyond," International Journal of the Commons
A. Bicksler, R. Bates, R. Burnette, T. Gill, L.S. Meitzner Yoder, V. Ricciardi, and Y. Srigiofun, 2012. "Methodologies for strengthening informal indigenous vegetable seed systems in northern Thailand and Cambodia," Acta Hort
Meitzner Yoder, L.S. and V. Ricciardi, 2012. "Seed fairs: Fostering local seed exchange to support regional biodiversity," ECHO Asia Notes
Meitzner, Laura S., and Martin L. Price., 1996. "Amaranth to Zai Holes: Ideas for Growing Food under Difficult Conditions," ECHO: North Fort Myers, Florida. 404 pp.