Caving Culturally María alejandra pérez, PhD

I am an Associate Professor in the Geography Program at West Virginia University’s Department of Geology and Geography. A cultural anthropologist by training, I investigate the cultural and historical context of scientific practice. In other words, I approach science as a cultural activity. Speleology (cave science and exploration) serves as a case study with which I examine a range of topics such as:

  • identity (Who are we? What brings us together?)
  • place and emotion (How do places become meaningful? Why is it that we come to love some places more than others? )
  • value (How do we come to value certain places over others, beyond dollars and cents?)
  • politics (Who has access to or owns what, and how far underground? Who has the means and power to represent the hidden dimensions of the Earth and to what effect?)

Really, these questions are relevant well beyond caves, karst, and even bunkers, another site of research!

I had originally titled this website Cultures of Caving. But that title is not accurate. I don't want anyone to think there are all of these distinct cultures of caving around the world. It is much more accurate to speak of Caving Culturally. One of my favorite anthropologists, Tim Ingold, puts it best when he notes that “it might be more realistic … to say that people live culturally rather than to say they live in cultures.” This approach encourages studies of “people whose lives take them on a journey through space and time in environments which seem to them to be full of significance, who use both words and material artifacts to get things done and to communicate with others, and who, in their talk, endlessly spin metaphors so as to weave labyrinthine and ever-expanding networks of symbolic equivalence” (Ingold 2011). Now if you are a caver, I am certain that you can identify with this definition! In fact, we all can, no matter what keeps us up at night... whether it involves the underground or not.

Photo by WVU alumnus, caver, photographer, and dear friend Ryan Maurer, Cuba May 2018.

I began my research with speleologists in Venezuela, my country of origin. I have since done work in Cuba (NSF #1431278), the continental US, and now I am starting two exciting projects in Puerto Rico with my colleague Dr. Aixa Alemán-Díaz of the American Geophysical Union:

  • Project 1 - Collaborative Research: Ecologies of Participation in Island Karst Science and Conservation: A Comparative Multimethods Approach. Funded by the National Science Foundation - Social, Behavioral, and Economics Sciences Directorate - Science and Technology Studies Program (#2236151). May 2023 - Start Date. This research project investigates the history, present challenges, and future directions of the exploration and conservation of karst and other natural systems in Puerto Rico.
  • Project 2 - How Ethnography Reveals the Human Story of Unusual Geologic Encounters: Lessons from Puerto Rico. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Archaeological and Ethnographic Field Research Program (RFW29200023 - WVU is subaward to AGU). May 2024 - Start Date. Stay tuned for updates!

Photo by Tamara Gonzáles Durán, Comunidad Espeleológica Puertorriqueña, November 2021.

Since 2019, I am honored to have joined the Fellows community of the National Speleological Society. In 2020 the Sociedad Espeleológica de Cuba recognized my efforts building bridges between Cuban and US cavers with the SEC 25th Anniversary Medal. From 2014-2022 I was also a Board Member of the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias. This great organization has a grants program for research and conservation projects. But the speleological organization where my heart belongs is the Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología. Want to know more about speleology in Latin America and the Caribbean? Check out the Federación Espeleológica de América Latina y del Caribe. In Puerto Rico, I am following closely the amazing work of the large community behind the effort of the Ciudadanos del Karso and their Instituto del Karso de Puerto Rico y el Caribe. (Also in Puerto Rico, don't miss this amazing new podcast by Comunidad Espeleológica Puertorriqueña!). Finally, cavers and karst scientists celebrated the International Year of Caves and Karst in 2021 and 2022, coordinated by the International Union of Speleology. Even though those years have passed, the work continues. Join the effort!

You can view and download my CV here (last updated December 2023).

Publications (Peer-Reviewed)

Other Relevant Publications

  • Pérez, M. A. 2022. How Caves Gather: The Power and Potential of a Radical Speleology. Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Speleology - UIS 2022, 6 (Techniques and Society), 283-286.
  • Pérez, M. A. and J. Wilson. 2019. Caver Communities and Organizations: Cultural and Historical Considerations. In White, W. and D. Culver (eds), Encyclopedia of Caves (3rd Edition). Elsevier.
  • Pérez, M. A. 2019. Book Review: Endless Caverns: An Underground Journey into the Show Caves of Appalachia by Douglas Reichert Powell (2018). West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies (13) 1: In Press.
  • Pérez, M. A., D. Soroka, H. DuChene, and J. Patera. 2017. Exploring the Caves and Karst of Cuba In the Context of Changing US-Cuba Relations, NSS News: 16-23.
  • Pérez, M. A. 2016. Humans and Caves: A Broader Cultural Perspective, Caving Basics (4th Edition). Wiseman, Dean and Curt Harler (eds.). Pp. 209-218. Huntsville: National Speleological Society.
  • Pérez, M. A. 2009. Special Topics: Ramón Alberto Hernández (1926-2009). Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología (43): 45-48.
  • Pérez, M. A. 2007. Special Topics: Recordando y reconociendo a Juan Antonio Tronchoni, promotor de la espeleología venezolana. Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología (41): 33-42.
  • Galán, C., Herrera, F., Carreño, R., and Pérez, M. 2004. Roraima Sur System, Venezuela: 10.8 km, World’s Longest Quartzite Cave. Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología (41): 33-42.

Teaching and advising are important and complementary passions to my research.

In Spring 2024, I am scheduled to teach the mid-term pick-up course SUST 102 Global Sustainability (online, asynchronous), the new course SUST 302 Research for Sustainable Development, and SUST 388 Careers in Sustainability. These new SUST courses are part of the WVU Department of Geology and Geography's awesome new undergraduate majors, Sustainability Studies, B.A. and Earth and Earth and Environmental Science, B.S.

In October 2023, I participated in the dynamo Teaching Social Action 2023 Fall Institute, led by Dr. Scott Myers-Lipton and hosted by Dr. Arun Agrawal at the University of Michigan (my alma mater!). All profs everywhere, you have to check this out!

I am currently principal advisor to:

  • Noah Moulton (M.A. track)
  • Annaka Exley (M.A. track). Don't miss this awesome peer-reviewed article that Annaka and her classmates, all of whom took my GEOG 303 Cultural Geography course, published in 2023! I am so proud of you!
With our Geology and Geography Ph.D. grads, Sarah Loftus, Shobha Yadav, and Natalie Mitchell, with my dear colleague, Dr. Brent McCusker, WVU Spring 2023

I am so proud of my recent grads, Sarah Loftus, Ph.D. ('23) and Heather Maxey, M.A. ('23)! Dr. Sarah has already been publishing her dissertation work (Loftus 2022 and 2023). I am honored to have worked with and learned from such brilliant women!

Photo by Tamadher Al Ishaqui of Fall 2021 GEOG/GEOL 191 and GEOG 496 students, along with my colleague Dr. Jaime Toro, at Coopers Rock State Park.

Contact

98 Beechurst Ave, 330 Brooks Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506-6300 // maria.perez@mail.wvu.edu

I live in Morgantown, WV, with my dear husband and our daughters, all three intrepid companions during mommy's adventures. We join my parents and brothers in our shared love of the outdoors whenever we can. See that middle picture in the grid? That's my daughter Bianquita belaying her grandfather in our awesome Morgantown climbing gym, Gritstone. On November 2022 the Morgantown climbing community was shocked and devastated by the sudden closure of this gym. We remain hopeful that an entrepreneurial team will see the extraordinary value of this space and the community it was forging and invest to reopen the gym!

Cover photo by Alan Warild of me in Guácharo Cave, Venezuela, in 2008.