Zach (SM ’23) is a historical ethnographer who studies the enduring coincidence of geopolitical, environmental, and demographic change in southern Italy. His dissertation, tentatively titled “Uprooting Monoculture,” traces how experimental and scientific attempts to regenerate diseased olive monocultures in Puglia run into unresolved socio-economic inequality and new extremes in the means of agricultural production.
In AY 24/25, Zach will conclude field and archival research in Italy and work as a teaching assistant in MIT’s Anthropology Program while preparing his dissertation. His research has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, MIT’s John Lyons Fellowship, and MIT International Science & Technology Initiatives (MISTI). Zach is a member of MIT’s Graduate Student Union and, in addition to his work at the Institute, is an affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard. He warmly welcomes correspondence at his e-mail or office addresses.
