Mapping deforestation and resistance around the world

Main Focus

Over the last eight years Freg has worked with Guaraní researchers in South America, mapping deforestation and Indigenous resistance to colonisation since 1500. At the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, Freg is extending this research model, drawing on archival sources to map capitalist expansion, deforestation and political resistance over the last five centuries.

Curriculum Vitae

Freg has a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Spanish and Visual Art and a PhD in History from the University of Melbourne. His PhD thesis, “The Hummingbird’s Atlas: Mapping Guaraní Resistance in the Atlantic Rainforest during the Emergence of Capitalism (1500–1768)”, won the 2022 Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia’s Prize for Best Doctoral Dissertation, along with the 2023 Australian Historical Association’s General History Thesis Prize. 

Forest Histories


Episodio 1 : Resistance in South America

Forest Histories


Episodio 2 : Cosmopolitic of the Forest

Mata Atlântica


Mata Atlântica: Desmatamento e Resistência

Publications

Publications Academics

Journal Articles: 

Stokes, F. J., Benites, S., Ekman, A., Surui, U. A., Furquim, L., Winkelmann, R., Renn, J., Roberts, P., Tropical Deforestation and Indigenous Resistance over the Longue Durée in South America. (July 2025) Journal of Global History, vol. 20, Iss.2, pp.121-142. (Link)

Echoes, Freire, V. Z., Caetano-Andrade, V. L., Iminjili, V., Lellau, R., Rudd, R., Stokes, F. J., et al, Addressing the Anthropocene from the Global South: Integrating Palaeoecology, Archaeology and Traditional Knowledge for COP Engagement. (October 2024). Frontiers in Earth Science, 12. 

Vaquer, J. M., Llapur, L., Stokes, F. J., Modes of Production During the Inka Imperial Period (1420-1535 AD) and the Early Colonial Period (1535-1660 AD) in the Jujuy Valley, Argentina. (September 2024). Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 3. 

Stokes, F. J., Socialist Settlers on a Capitalist Frontier: The Contradictions of New Australia, Paraguay. (May 2024). Labour History, 126, pp.25-45. (Link)

Stokes, F. J., Applied Theatre and Political Change in Bhutan. (June 2015). Postcolonial Studies. Special Issue: Indo-Australian Connections: Thinking beyond the State, 18 (2), pp.174-188

Review Articles: 

Roberts, P., Caetano-Andrade, V. L., Fisher, M., Hamilton, R., Rudd R., Stokes, F. J.,  Amano, N., Antonosyan, M. et al., Uncovering the Multibiome Environmental and Earth System Legacies of Past Human Societies. (August 2024). Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 30 (49). 

Stokes, F. J., Contemporary Debates on the Indigenous Populations of the Jesuit-Guaraní Missions: An Overview. (2021-I). Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu, xc (fasc.179), pp.117-136

Book Sections: 

Stokes, F. J., Posfácio. (2024) A Folha Divina. Ka'a Miri'i, by Timóteo Verá Tupã Popyguá, São Paulo, Hedra, pp.59-68

Stokes, F. J., 2011 and World Revolutionary Moments: Mapping New Strategies and Alliances in Australian Youth Activism. (2019) Young People and the Politics of Outrage and Hope ed. By Peter Kelly, Perri Campbell, Lyn Harrison and Chis Hickey, Leiden, Boston, Brill, pp.307-326


Parcerias

2023

USP

2024

Editora Hedra

2025

Cosmoperception of the Forest / Goethe-Institut)

Atlas Brasiliensis
(Goethe-Institut)