Special Issue for The Extractive Industries and Society

Guest editors: Gisselle Vila Benites (Cornell University) & Alejandra Villanueva Ubillus (KU Leuven)

This compilation problematizes how energy, sustainability, and post-mining transition frameworks "touch ground" in Latin American territories. Contributions from the qualitative and mixed methods social sciences are welcome.

Abstract submissions deadline: June 1st, 2026. 

I have joined the Editorial Board of The Extractive Industries and Society (starting 2026). I look forward to contributing to the journal alongside a remarkable group of colleagues whose research I deeply admire.

May 26 - 30, Paris (France).

I will be fulfilling several roles:

• Organizing the panel series "Mining Transitions in Peru."

• Presenting my book chapter on critical minerals in the Amazon.

• Organizing the roundtable "For, with, and against: Community-centered Responses to Mining in Latin America." 

• Discussing a couple of exciting volumes: "Underground Politics: Gold Mining and State-Making in Colombia", by Jesse Jonkman, and "Flows of Violence. Water, Infrastructures, and the State in Buenaventura, Colombia" by Felipe Fernandez.

Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm (Ithaca, NY)

Fernow Hall, G24

This presentation is part of the Natural Resources and the Environment Seminar Series at Cornell CALS Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment.

Friday, March 27, 2026, 12:15pm to 1:15pm  (Hamilton, NY)

ALANA Cultural Center, Colgate University

This presentation is part of the Environmental Studies Seminar Series at Colgate University.

December 6, 2025, 10:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. (London, UK and online)

IOE Room 537, University College London (UCL)

Conference organized by Peru Support Group and the Global Governance Institute (UCL).

I'll be speaking at the panel "Illegal mining and the new political landscape."

November 14, 2025, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (New Orleans, LA)

Greenleaf Conference Room, 100A Jones Hall

Workshop organized by the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research.

My presentation is entitled Miners in the twilight of democracy: Exit, voice and resource communalism.

October 31, 2025, 3 p.m.-4 p.m. (Syracuse, NY)

Eggers Hall, 018 

This presentation is part of the fall 2025 Colloquium series sponsored by the Geography and the Environment Department, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (Syracuse University).

October 24, 2025, 6 p.m. - 8 p.m. (Lima, Peru)

Seminario organizado por la Clínica Jurídica de la Facultad de Derecho (Universidad del Pacífico). Mi presentación se centrará en la remediación ambiental y cierre de minas.

Registro aquí.