Thomas R. McGuire

Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
Research Anthropologist Emeritus (BARA)

About Thomas R. McGuire

Tom McGuire is an applied anthropologist with the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) and the School of Anthropology. For more than the last decade, he has been working on the impact of the offshore oil and gas industry on communities along the Gulf Coast, from Brownsville, Texas through south Louisiana, to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama. He has also researched Native American economies and water rights in the Southwest, fishing communities in the Upper Gulf of California, and historic mixed-blood cattle ranchers on the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

Selected Publications

 2013  “Beyond the Horizon: Oil and Gas along the Gulf of Mexico,” by Tom McGuire and Diane Austin. Cultures of Energy: Power, Practices, Technologies, edited by Sarah Strauss, Stephanie Rupp, and Thomas Love. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Pp. 298-311.

2008  “Shell Games on the Water Bottoms of Louisiana: Investigative Journalism and Anthropological Inquiry,” in  Against the Grain: The Vayda Tradition in Human Ecology and Ecological Anthropology. Edited by Bradley B. Walters, Bonnie J. McCay, Paige West, and Susan Lees. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, Pp. 117-134.

2006  “Louisiana’s Oysters, America’s Wetlands, and the Storms of 2005,” invited paper, American Anthropologist 108(4):692-706.

2006  “Oil and Gas in South Louisiana,” in Research in Economic Anthropology, Volume 24: Markets and Market Liberalization: Ethnographic Reflections, Edited by Norbert Dannhaeuser and Cynthia Werner. Amsterdam: Elsevier, Pp. 63-87.

2006  “Work and Change in the Gulf of Mexico Offshore Petroleum Industry,” by Diane E. Austin, Thomas R. McGuire, and Rylan Higgins, in Research in Economic Anthropology, Volume 24: Markets and Market Liberalization: Ethnographic Reflections, Edited by Norbert Dannhaeuser and Cynthia Werner. Amsterdam: Elsevier, Pp. 89-122.

2006  “Two Faces of American Environmentalism: The Quest for Justice in Southern Louisiana and Sustainability in the Sonoran Desert,” by David Jenkins, Joanne Bauer, Scott Bruton, Diane Austin, and Thomas McGuire, in Forging Environmentalism: Justice, Livelihood, and Contested Environments. Edited by Joanne Bauer. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Pp. 263-326.

2005  “The Domain of  the Environment,” in Applied Anthropology: Domains of Application. Edited by Satish Kedia and John van Willigen. Westport, CT: Praeger, Pp. 87-117.

2003  “The River, the Delta, and the Sea,”  Journal of the Southwest. 54(3):371-410.

2003  “Contract Drillers and Causal Histories along the Gulf of Mexico,” by Thomas R. McGuire and Andrew Gardner, Human Organization 62(3):218-228.

 

Courses Taught

Political Ecology of North America; Energy Culture, Society; Intellectual Foundations of Applied Anthropology

Areas of Study

North America (general): Gulf Coast, Southwest, Northwest Mexico

Projects

2008-2012  Minerals Management Service, Department of the Interior, “History of the Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Industry during the Deepwater Era,” with University of Houston.

2006-2009  Minerals Management Service, Department of the Interior, “Gulf Coast Communities and the Fabrication and Shipbuilding Industry: A Comparative Community Study,” with University of Houston and Nicholls State University.

2001-2007  Minerals Management Service, Department of the Interior, “Comprehensive History of the Offshore Oil and Gas Industry in Louisiana,” with Louisiana State University, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, University of Houston, and History International, LLC.

1998-2001   Minerals Management Service, Department of the Interior, “Social and Economic Impacts of OCS Activities on Families and Individuals”

1999-2001   Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs and National Science Foundation, “Understanding Values: A Comparative Study of Values in Environmental Policy Making in China, Japan, India, and the United States.”

1996-2001   Minerals Management Service, Department of the Interior, “Assessment of Historical, Social, and Economic Impacts of OCS Development on Gulf Coast Communities," subcontract to A.T. Kearney, Inc.

Research Interests

Natural resource-dependent communities; fisheries; decision-making and organizational behavior; U.S. Navy shipbuilding