Joseph Scala, 2026-2027 PhD Fellow

September 1, 2026

Meet PhD Fellow, Joseph Scala. Joseph  is a PhD student in the department of Geography and Environmental Studies. His project is titled: The Governance of Absence: Wine, Heritage, and Land Speculation in Northern Baja California.

Joseph notes that "I started traveling to Valle de Guadalupe regularly with my partner's family about 5 years ago, and in that time saw dramatic changes to the landscape that coincided with the region's growing popularity as a wine destination.  More broadly speaking, what intrigues me about wine is that it is an agricultural product with a global industry of its own, yet it is also intimately tied to a modern global tourism economy. There is also something mythical about wine, it is symbolic and deals in the rural imaginary and the valorization of place. Speaking with winemakers in Valle de Guadalupe, it became evident that policy and the selective curation of regional heritage actively reshape connections to place. This fellowship would allow me to examine how small-scale winemakers offer a counternarrative to navigate their own connections to Valle de Guadalupe."