Steve Striffler received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in 1998. His first book, In the Shadows of State and Capital: The United Fruit Company, Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador (Duke 2002), focuses on the political struggles between U.S. multinationals, the state, and peasant-workers in Ecuador's banana producing region. His second book, Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food, looks at the US poultry industry, Latin American immigration into the South, and the impact of industrial agriculture on American society (Yale, 2005). His current project examines the rapid and particularly violent emergence of the coal industry in Colombia during the past three decades. This research explores an ongoing conflict between indigenous communities, Afro-Colombians, mine workers, and international solidarity groups on the one hand, and foreign coal companies (Exxon), the Colombian state, paramilitaries, the U.S. government, and global financial institutions on the other. He teaches courses on Latin America, immigration, and labor.