Past research

Canal network, Bajo Naranjillo river (San Martin, Peru)

My master's research focused on indigenous water governance in the Peruvian Amazon. Working with the concept of institutional bricolage, I examined how the Awajun and Wampi peoples adapted integrated water management principles with land stewardship. This research revealed how interconnected tenure over lands, forests and waters supports landscape conservation. 

This research was supported with Conservation International's Biocuencas Research Grant. It received the Water Culture National Prize (Third Place). It also resulted in articles published in peer-reviewed journals such as Anthropologica and Alternautas, as well as the co-edited volume “A contracorriente: Agua y conflicto en América Latina” (Quito: Abya Yala). 

Photo: Andina

My research explored the dynamics of digital literacy and collective action among Indigenous teenagers in the Amazon. While their personal internet use mirrors that of any other teen—gaming, social media, and music—they are simultaneously crucial actors in intergenerational governance. They actively assist their parents in using online resources to secure better information for livelihood economies and the defense of collective lands. This work highlights the emergence of rooted digital networks that, despite the youth's sometimes fluid self-identity, are essential to the continuity and protection of their territories.

This research was supported by the Amy Mahan Fellowship program, funded by the International Development Research Center. My findings were published as part of the working paper series of Diálogo Regional de la Sociedad de la Información, a network bringing together research centers across Latin America, including Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and Telecom-CIDE.

My research explored how the organizational structure and administration of football both reproduce and are shaped by deeply embedded societal relations of patrimonialism and clientelism.

Employing a historical sociology framework, my colleagues and I analyzed a century of football governance—spanning local clubs, national associations, and international arenas—to trace the persistence of these informal power dynamics. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of the symbolic field, our work analyzed the inherent difficulties in modernizing sport management when the entire system is heavily patterned by persistent societal fissures, including deep-seated racialization and political centralism. This research demonstrates that institutional reform often founders when confronted with powerful, long-standing cultural and political patterns.

Our findings were published in "El otro partido. La disputa por el gobierno del fútbol peruano" (Fondo Editorial de la PUCP, 2018), among other outlets. This program was supported by PUCP's annual research award (CAP 2015).