Peter Vandergeest

Peter Vandergeest (PhD, Cornell, 1990) is conducting research on labour relations and working conditions among migrant workers in industrial fisheries, with a focus on fleets operated out of Taiwan and Thailand. The project is currently expanding from an initial emphasis on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic policies on seafarers in industrial fisheries, to explore the supply chain for workers in fishing; labour governance and regulatory policy for fish workers; and the role of seafarer support organizations globally. This is a collaborative program of research involving Melissa Marschke (University of Ottawa) as well as other faculty and students at York University, and in Sweden, the United States and Thailand. More generally, my expertise is in political ecology and agrarian studies in Southeast Asia, and my past and ongoing research interests include the history of scientific forestry in Southeast Asia (with Nancy Peluso) and alternative agriculture in Southeast Asia (with Mary Young).

Representative Publications

• Faxon, Hillary, N. Peluso and P. Vandergeest. 2020. “Grounding Area Studies: Development Sociology and the study of agrarian-environmental change in Southeast Asia.” SEAP Bulletin Fall: 18–24. Cornell University Southeast Asia Program.  
•  Vandergeest, P. and M. Marschke. 2019. “Modern slavery and freedom: Exploring contradictions through labour scandals in the Thai fisheries.” Antipode 52, no, 1: 291–315.
•  Vandergeest, P. 2019. “Law and lawlessness in industrial fishing: Frontiers in regulating labor relations in Asia.” International Social Science Journal 68, no. 229–30: 325–341.
•  Marschke, M. and Vandergeest, P. 2016. “Slavery scandals: Unpacking labor challenges and policy responses within the off-shore fisheries sector.” Marine Policy 68: 39–46.