Central Italy · 42.1°N
Wolves, farmers and capitalism
Twelve months living with farming communities in Tuscany and the Apennines, tracing how land abandonment, subsidy regimes and the wolf's return produce one another.
Looking at human-wildlife relations, how they take shape, and the worlds they produce.
Research
My research draws on human and environmental geography, political philosophy, and the environmental humanities, whilst borrowing methods from the ecological sciences, to investigate human-wildlife relations. It contributes to critical social theory as well as shaping conservation thinking, policy, and practice. Three themes of my work include:
Publications
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2025
The radical edge of more-than-human political ecology: A clarification of scope and approach
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2025
From biopower to affirmative biopolitics: A (bio)political ecology of becoming with wolves
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2025
Agrarian change and predators' mobilities: A more-than-human political ecology of wolf impacts
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2025
Reimagining habituation: The case for a reciprocal and contextual understanding
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2024
De- and re-peasantization through wolves: A more-than-human political ecology of agrarian change
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2024
(Co)producing landscapes of coexistence: A historical political ecology of human–wolf relations in Italy
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2021
Cost of coexisting with a relict large carnivore population: Impact of Apennine brown bears, 2005–2015
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2023
Understanding conflict among experts working on controversial species: A case study on the Australian dingo
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2022
Managing hybridization beyond the natural–anthropogenic dichotomy
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2020
European agreements for nature conservation need to explicitly address wolf-dog hybridisation
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2019
Unravelling the scientific debate on how to address wolf-dog hybridization in Europe
Other scholarship
Living with wolves: Affects, feelings and sentiments in human–wolf coexistence
Capitalismo, il grande assente nel dibattito sul declassamento del lupo ↗
Spotlight
Three sites, one question: what does it cost, and what does it make possible, to live alongside a returning predator?
Australia
What is a dingo?
A feral dog? An apex predator? Both? Does it matter? Scientists and practitioners disagree, but such diversity of views is not reflected in current policies and management approaches.
Global
The place of wild hybrids
The limits of species-based conservation frameworks become apparent when some of the outcasted hybrids perform valued ecological and evolutionary functions, calling for a review of current practices.
Qualifications
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2020 – 2024
PhD in GeographyUniversity of Cambridge
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2017 – 2018
MSc in Conservation Science and PolicyUniversity of Exeter
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2014 – 2017
BSc in Animal BehaviourUniversity of Exeter
Teaching
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2025
Teaching FellowDepartment of Geography and the Environment, University of Aberdeen
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2021 – 2024
Teaching AssociateDepartment of Geography / Zoology, University of Cambridge
Curriculum
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2025
Teaching FellowUniversity of Aberdeen
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2021 – 2024
Teaching AssociateUniversity of Cambridge
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2023
ConsultantInternational Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
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2018 – 2019
Membership Development OfficerRoyal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Contact
For enquiries, collaborations, consultancy, access to research:
donfrancesco.valerio@gmail.com