Dr. Stetson joined the United States Coast Guard Academy in July of 2012 as a Post Doctoral Fellow in Maritime Policy. Before joining the USCGA, in 2011-2012, he worked at Boise State University as a Visiting Assistant Professor, where he taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in Environmental Politics and Policy. In 2010, Dr Stetson graduated with a PhD in Political Science from Colorado State University. His dissertation examined a political and environmental conflict between indigenous peoples and the state over hydrocarbon resources in the Peruvian Amazon. In 2000, Dr. Stetson received a Master’s degree from the University of the Andes in Merida, Venezuela, where he studied Latin American Politics. In addition to his academic background, Dr. Stetson also has experience working as a participatory development practitioner and consultant. He worked at the community level in urban development projects in Venezuelan squatter settlements and has been actively involved with indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon on several participatory development initiatives. At the USCGA, Dr. Stetson’s main research interests relate to the study of environmental governance arrangements between indigenous groups, private companies, and government agencies in spaces denominated as “resource frontiers” such as the Arctic region.  

• Ph.D., Political Science, Colorado State University, 2010
• M.A., Political Science University of the Andes (Merida, Venezuela), 2012
• B.A., University of Arizona, 1992

• Latin American Politics
• Sustainable Development and Environmental Conservation in Developing Areas
• Energy Policy in the U.S. West
• Comparative Environmental Policy
• Water Policy and Development
• Introduction to Public Administration
• Philosophy of Sustainable Development Management
• Motivation and Technology of Participation

• Colorado State University, International Presidential Fellows Award, 2010-2011
• USCGA, Post Doctoral Fellow in Maritime Policy

• “Oil politics and indigenous resistance in the Peruvian Amazon: the rhetoric of modernity against the reality of coloniality” Journal of Environment and Development (March, 2012).
• “Indigenous/State in the Peruvian Amazon: Eurocentric Modernity vs. Indigenous Decolonization” in Christine Hunefeldt and Leon Zamosc (Editors) Ethnicity from Various Angles and Through Varied Lenses. Sussex Academic Press (2011).
• “For Opacity: Nature, Culture, and Indigeneity in Amazonia” (co-authored with Keith Lindner) (Spring 2009) TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.

• American Political Science Association
• Latin American Studies Association