Mary Ann Manahan

Mary Ann Manahan is a Filipina feminist activist researcher based in Ghent, Belgium. She is currently an academic assistant at Conflict Research Group in the Department of Conflict and Development Studies of Ghent University. Animated and inspired by ecofeminism, political ecology, and indigenous scholarship, her PhD project looks at the intersections of indigenous peoples’ struggles for self-determination, forest conservation and development in southern Philippines. Prior to her academic stint, she has 18 years of professional experience working with an activist think tank and advocacy NGO, grant-making organization, and social movements advocating for redistribution, ecological, gender and social justice, and alternatives to development.

She has co-coordinated the Beyond Development Global Working Group, a global collective exploring radical and systemic emancipatory approaches to social and ecological transformation. She is also co-editor and contributor of The Geopolitics of Green Colonialism. Global Justice and Ecosocial Transitions, published by Pluto Press, which has been translated to Spanish, German and Portuguese.