Laura Milena Botero

Hometown

Táchira, Venezuela

Education

B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela

Interests

Indigenous and gender studies, natural resource governance, community-based action, biocultural conservation, and socio-environmental justice.

Experience

I'm a psychologist doing ethnography in the Venezuelan Amazon together with Uwottüja Indigenous people from the middle Orinoco and Sipapo basins. My work unfolds in a context shaped by extractive mining economies and surrounding armed governances. I place my research in the interstices of this context by approaching the intimacies of life in the local communities of a territory disputed over its natural resources. In this sense, I'm interested in understanding how bodies, territories, and relations are produced, both materially and symbolically, while striving to sustain life within the forest. My aim is to develop participatory action research in the Amazon region by engaging in collective processes to achieve justice for indigenous peoples.