Matthew Libassi is an assistant professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies. His work is grounded in political ecology, an interdisciplinary field focused on the intersection of nature, power, and inequality. He uses ethnographic, historical, and broader qualitative methods and has a regional emphasis on Southeast Asia.
Matt's current research focuses primarily on extractive conflicts in Indonesia. In his book project, he examines how small-scale gold mining -- and the global connections it creates -- are powerful forces for social and political transformation. In a second project, he explores the politics of supply chains, industrial transformation, and social change around Indonesia's push to mine energy transition minerals. His research has been published in Political Geography, Antipode, Geoforum, Journal of Rural Studies, and Environment and Society, among other outlets.
Before joining ASU, Matt served as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow with USAID's Land and Resource Governance team and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers University.