Felipe Murtinho joins the faculty as an assistant professor in the International Studies Department and Institute of Public Service, effective September 2013. He has been an instructor in the College of Arts and Sciences for the past three years. Murtinho specializes in sustainable development and environmental policy in Latin America.

Since last summer, Murtinho has been working with Environmental Studies Professor Tanya Hayes and Hendrik Wolff of the University of Washington on a National Sciences Foundation research grant. The three-year grant focuses on how economic incentives influence decisions among indigenous and peasant communities for protecting forests in Ecuador.

Murtinho received his PhD in Geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has conducted research in Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico. His recent scholarship includes “Adaptation in resource-dependent communities: A call for greater clarity in adaptation research,” co-authored with T. Hayes, in Society and Natural Resources Journal (2012), and the book chapter, “Estrategias de las Juntas Administradoras de Agua para materializer su seguridad hidrica en los Andes Colombianos” in Seguridades Disputadas: discursos, Agua y Medios de Vida Rurales en los Andes (forthcoming 2013).

The College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college in Seattle University, offers 42 undergraduate majors, 37 minors, and 7 master's degrees.