Tracey Heatherington's research engages questions related to political ecology and environmental justice. She is particularly interested in ecodevelopment and biodiversity conservation as forms of power/knowledge, and their relationship to projects of state-making and identity construction. The convergence of neoracisms or cultural racisms with scientific environmental governance can undermine the role of indigenous or local knowledge of the environment.
Heatherington's work so far has focused on the contentious debate over the creation of a new national park in central Sardinia, Italy, and the significance of what she calls Sardinia's 'troubles with wilderness' (with a metaphorical bow to William Cronon) in the larger context of the European Union. She has been interested in the political practices associated with both environmentalism and resistance to environmentalist initiatives. Recently, Heatherington has begun working on the problem of identity formation in the emerging class of forestry experts and professional environmentalists in Sardinia, as well as the social impact of new technologies in conservation genetics.
