Biography
My PhD research investigates biocultural interdependence in Amazonian ecosystems in the Lower Yarapa-Upper Tahuayo River Basin in Loreto, Peru, focussing on the interplay between gendered ethnobotanical knowledge and tropical forest biodiversity. Grounded in biocultural diversity conservation and biogeography, this study combines quantitative forest vegetation habitat analysis in várzea (flooded forest) and tierra firme (upland forest) ecosystems with qualitative ethnobotanical inquiry among surrounding Indigenous communities. I aim to produce spatial overlays of ecosystems and knowledge systems, revealing people-plant relationships that underpin biocultural interdependence and ecosystem dynamics.
Prior to my PhD, I completed an interdisciplinary MSc in Ethnobotany (2023) at the University of Kent at Canterbury during which I conducted fieldwork on cultural transmission in northeastern Peruvian Amazonia. I also hold a BA in Social Anthropology (2022) from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.
