Lisa Alvarado is a PhD student at the Institute of Social Anthropology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Tobias Haller. Her doctoral research is part of the SNF-funded project ‘Convivial Constitutionality: Human-Predator Interrelations in Complex Social-Ecological Systems’, which looks at relationships between humans and apex predators in order to contribute to the debate around alternatives to current conservation methods. Specifically, Lisa will look at the relations between humans and jaguars in the Ecuadorian Amazon, where local indigenous groups have co-existed with jaguars for centuries and established very specific, also spiritual relationships with these apex predators.

Lisa has concluded both her Bachelor and Master studies in Social Anthropology at the University of Bern. In her master thesis she studied a land legalizing process of indigenous Siona in Ecuador, where (re)creation of identities and apocalyptic perceptions of the Anthropocene played important roles.

Lisa’s research interests include

·      Amazonian Anthropology

·      Political Ecology

·      Political Anthropology

·      New Institutionalism

·      Ontological Anthropology