Sebastian Rubiano-Galvis

Sebastian Rubiano-Galvis is the 2022-2023 Gerardo Marín Postdoctoral Fellow in the International Studies Department at the University of San Francisco. His work studies environmental politics and the politics of knowledge and technology in Latin America. He examines how states and non-state actors produce knowledge about environmental problems and what they do with it, especially in contexts of injustice, violence, and inequality. His most recent work explores these questions through the case of mercury toxicity in Colombian gold mining landscapes. In the last decade, he has also researched the politics and regulation of extractive industries, environmental knowledge in court, indigenous livelihoods, and pedagogy in environmental politics. 

Before joining USF, Rubiano-Galvis completed an interdisciplinary PhD in environmental and science studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a visiting doctoral fellow at Universidad del Rosario’s school of law, Colombia.

He has worked and collaborated with various environmental, indigenous, and human rights organizations in Latin America and serves on the board of the Observatorio para la Gobernanza Marino Costera.

• Global environmental politics
• Science and technology studies
• Political ecology

• Politics of environmental knowledge and technology
• Environmental politics and environmental justice
• Social studies of toxics, pollution, and extractive industries
• Latin America

• UC Berkeley, PhD in Environmental Science, Policy & Management, 2022
• Universidad de los Andes, MA in Geography, 2014
• Universidad de los Andes, LLB (JD eq.), 2011

• Research Director of the Environmental Justice program, Dejusticia, Colombia.
• Lecturer in environmental law, School of Law, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia.

• Service to Community Award. Department of ESPM, UC Berkeley, 2022.
• Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. GSI Teaching and Resource Center, UC Berkeley, 2021-2022.

• Rubiano-Galvis, S. (forthcoming) (ed.). Saberes, tecnologías y derecho en América Latina. Bogota: Ediciones Uniandes.

• O’Neill, K & S. Rubiano-Galvis (forthcoming). “Teaching Perspective: Negotiating Climate Change in the UN System.” In S. Jinnah, J. Dubreuil, J. Greene, & S. Foster (eds). Teaching Environmental Politics and Justice: Lessons from the Science of Teaching and Learning. Edward Elgar Publishing.

• Rubiano-Galvis, S. (forthcoming). “Mercurio.”In D. Ojeda & D. Ruiz (eds.). Belicopedia. Animales, plantas y otros seres de la guerra en Colombia. Bogotá: Ediciones Uniandes.

• Barandiarán, J. & S. Rubiano-Galvis (2019). “An Empirical Study of EIA Litigation Involving Energy Facilities in Chile and Colombia.” Environmental Impact Assessment Review 79.