Mapping Global Forest History
Freg J. Stokes is a historian and artist from Australia working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany. Over the last decade, Freg has worked with Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers in South America, mapping deforestation and resistance during the colonial period. Currently, Freg is working on a global project, putting together archival sources, satellite photography, and community discussions to map capitalist expansion, deforestation and political resistance over the last five centuries.
In the first half of 2026, Freg is in Boston undertaking a postdoctoral fellowship with the Weatherhead Global History Research Cluster at Harvard University.
Event: Global History Seminar at Harvard University
9th March 2026 (delayed due to snow storms!)
Robinson Hall
35 Quincy Street, Room 125
Event moderated by Sven Beckert.
Register Here.
In person attendance only
"Tropical Deforestation and Indigenous Resistance in South America since 1500"
By Freg J. Stokes
Indigenous Guaraní-speaking societies in the Atlantic Forest of South America have influenced both regional environmental history and the global history of capitalism. This seminar paper evaluates how Guaraní labor in the coastal, ‘Portuguese’ section of the forest, and Guaraní resistance in the inland, ‘Spanish’ section of the forest, have shaped regional deforestation patterns from 1500 until the present day.
Forest Histories
Episode 1 : Resistance in South America
With collaborations from the Goethe Institute, the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and a Brazilian production team, we are currently developing a series of short animated films about forest history around the world. Stay tuned for updates!
Mata Atlântica
Palestra online com
Eduardo Simões
para o Instituto
de Estudos Acançados
USP, 2022
Online seminar with Photographer
Eduardo Simões for the Institute of
Advanced Studies at USP, São Paulo,
2022. Video in Portuguese.
Publications
Journal Articles (First Author):
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).
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. (Link).
Journal Articles (Co-Author):
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. (Link).
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. (Link).
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). (Link).
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. (Link).
Book Sections:
Stokes, F. J., NASA Global Fire Map. (2026). In Visual Representations, (Eds. Cham, G.; Camacho Becerra, J. A.; Kaltmeier, O.; Rashkin, E.). Bielefeld, Transcript, pp. 399 - 406. (Link)
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. (Link-Paywalled).
PhD Thesis:
Stokes, F. J., The Hummingbird’s Atlas: Mapping Guaraní Resistance in the Atlantic Rainforest during the Emergence of Capitalism (1500–1768), (2022) University of Melbourne. (Link).
Artistic Collaborations/ Parcerias
2024–2026
Forest Histories
Goethe Institute & MPI-GEA
A series of short animated films on global forest histories.
2025
Atlas Brasiliensis
Goethe Institute & MPI-GEA
An atlas of lithographic prints made with Ivan Tukano, Frauke Zabel and Anita Ekman, in July 2025
2025
Cosmoperceptions of the Forest
Goethe Institute & MPI-GEA
An Art Exhibition in Belém, Brazil, during the COP30 Climate Conference in November 2025.
