Dr. Gisselle Vila Benites

I am a human-environment geographer currently serving as an Atkinson Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment, Cornell University. My research broadly examines natural resource governance in extractive frontiers and post-extractive transitions. 

My primary areas of specialization are political ecology, resource geography, and development studies. Specifically, I study informal mining governance in Latin America — or how social actors and institutions regulate mineral extraction through unwritten rules. My dissertation, a comparison of mining formalization pathways in Peru and Colombia, revealed how grassroots collectives, mining companies, the state, and development organizations shape formalization policy and hold competing visions of what counts as legitimate mining. Currently, I am leading a postdoctoral project in collaboration with the Shipibo-Conibo Nation in Peruvian Amazonia. We aim to center Indigenous governance in post-mining recovery, particularly in areas deeply transformed by alluvial (river-based) mining. To learn more, visit my research and publications pages. 

My research has taken shape across institutions and networks working at the intersection of extraction, sustainability and equity. At Cornell, I founded the Reparation Ecologies Working Group, a space for thinking across disciplines about the afterlives of environmental harm. I have held visiting scholar positions at KU Leuven's Geo-instituut (Belgium) and the Department of Political Science of Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia). Since 2026, I have also been contributing to the Global Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) Synthesis Working Group, an initiative bringing together global experts in ASM governance and sustainability, and serving on the Editorial Board of The Extractive Industries and Society journal.

Before joining Cornell, I received my Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography from Clark University, building on previous training in Sociology and Environmental Development at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Outside the field and classroom, you can find me hitting the road for a run or playing catch with Raymi—the most intrepid corgi shepherd.