Department of Anthropology
Bio
Gustavo Valenzuela Merino is a 2023–2024 Presidential Graduate Prize Fellowship and a Benjamin Franklin Fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on wildfire risk and prevention in Valparaíso, Chile, examining how flammability is socially produced through land use, policy, inequality, and everyday practices. He explores how residents and institutions navigate and shape risk in fire-prone landscapes.
Education
MSc. Latin American Anthropology at the Alberto Hurtado University, Chile.
B.A. in Political Science at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile.
Research Interests
Environmental Anthropology, Urban Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies and Cultures of Expertise, Forest-urban interface fires.