The Anthropology of Resources studies resource extraction's cultural, social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Most of my research focused on small-scale gold mining in the Amazon region, especially in Brazil and the Guianas. I have also done fieldwork in Bolivia and collaborated with researchers in Colombia and Peru. In Suriname and French Guiana, I work with the Brazilian migrant miners and the Aluku and Ndyuka maroon populations in the gold fields. Most of my work in Brazil has been in Pará, notably in the Tapajós region. As part of the collaborative Gold Matters project, I have also conducted fieldwork in Ghana with my Leiden University colleague Sabine Luning (1959-2025). In collaboration with my colleague Eva van Roekel, I undertook a project on the social and economic consequences of cross-border resource extraction in the context of the Venezuelan crisis in Roraima and Bolívar.
I am currently affiliated with several research institutions in Brazil. Since 2013, I have been engaged in collaborative research with the Research Group Etnografias Contemporâneas: Memória, Identidades e Urbanidades (with Madiana Rodrigues) of the Universidade Federal de Roraima. Since 2018, I have been a visiting researcher at the Center for Environmental Studies and Research (NEPAM), as well as a visiting professor and co-supervisor in the PhD Program Environment and Society at the same institution, Unicamp (University of Campinas). I am an editorial board member of the European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (ERLACS). Since 2023, I have been serving as Head of Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.
