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 deterioration. 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.
A key theme in his work is the formation of public truths out of counter-forensic practices.
He is also interested in the political economy of the energy transition, the digital possibilities for progressive politics, and informational commons. Rafael holds an MSc in Inequalities and Social Science from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Anthropology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.