Rafael Barrio de Mendoza Zevallos (2023)

Biography

Rafael is a PhD Student in the Sociology Department at the University of Cambridge. His work focuses on the emergence of experimental evidentiary practices in the context of environmental disasters. His project inquiries how the fishing communities impacted by the 2022 La Pampilla oil spill in Peru are repurposing sensing media and articulating epistemic habits to document the disaster, and in that way engage with regulatory agencies, the Peruvian administration and the private oil company to advance their claims. Hence, he seeks to interrogate how public matters regarding environmental harm evolve from the contentious assemblage of different technical, social and legal veridictions.

Thesis

(De)stabilizing an oil spill. The emergence of fishermen's evidentiary practices and the epistemic controversy of the Repsol La Pampilla 2022 oil spill in Peru

Supervisor

Professor Jennifer Gabrys

Awards

Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship. University of Cambridge.

Atkinson Prize for best overall performance, MSc Inequalities and Social Science from the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Hobhouse Memorial Prize for best overall performance with Distinction in the MSc Inequalities and Social Science from the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Atlantic Institute Fellowship. Scholarship for the MSc Inequalities and Social Sciences Program at the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.