I am a fourth year doctoral student researching community reactions to mining-led development in the Peruvian south central Andes. I am currently drafting my dissertation proposal under the guidance of Dr. Carmen Martínez Novo.

Two discourses greatly influence state perceptions of rural Andean communities and extraction: first, that mining is the surest means to economic development and security, and thus to be anti-mining is to be anti-development; and second, that true indigenous communities do not exist in the highlands. Given this, I am interested in how communities navigate the realities of mining and mining-led development with particular focus on the formation, maintenance and shifting of identities, inter- and intra-community conflict and protest, and shifts in rhetoric used to discuss issues related to mining and development.