Amanda Vilchez

Amanda Vilchez is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Field of Communication at Cornell University. She is a Peruvian biologist who graduated from the Agrarian University of la Molina in Peru. Her research interests are science communication and participatory research. Her studies result from the synergy between her two backgrounds: natural science and social science.

Currently, she is working on understanding how science communication develops in Latin America from the perspectives of practitioners, researchers, and audiences. She aims to understand who has a voice, who is listened to, and who is taken into account in communicating science to look for inclusive practices in a highly unequal and diverse region.

She is also interested in the potential of participatory research, citizen science particularly, to reconcile politics, society, and science. She highlights citizen science's democratic and political role in including diverse voices for resolving conflicts, and its scientific role in knowledge production for solving real-world problems. She is now studying volunteers' experience in citizen science projects focused on urban and rural biodiversity in Peru.