I hold a PhD in Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB, 2024), a MSc in Organic Agricultural Systems and Agroecology (BOKU, Vienna) and a BSc in Environmental Biology (UAB, Barcelona).
I am passionate about biodiversity and cultures. This made me an avid traveler, geographically and between scientific fields. With my background in natural sciences, I started working in the field of conservation biology and agroecology. With time, I noticed that conservation practices often overlook cultural values and practices, and that the drivers of agrobiodiversity loss are also at the heart of the loss of cultural diversity. This insight triggered my interest into exploring the bridges between natural and social dynamics.
In my master thesis I built on social-ecological resilience theory to study the changes brought about by Community Seed Banks in the Indigenous communities of the western highlands of Guatemala. In my PhD I explored the links between farmers’ agrobiodiversity management practices, processes of agrarian change, and climate change adaptation/vulnerability, paying attention to the historical roots that shape contemporary realities.
I am currently a researcher at CIRAD (Montpellier, France) in the group “Dynamics of Diversity, Societies, and Environments”, which focuses on understanding the evolutionary dynamics of cultivated plants within their socio-cultural contexts. In collaboration with my colleagues, my research combines research on farmers’ agrobiodiversity management practices, seed circulation and access, and local knowledge with population genetics. My work is inspired by theories of political ecology, critical agrarian studies, and gendered, intersectional perspectives.