Maria Cariola

Maria Cariola is a postdoctoral fellow and geographer at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen. She specializes in political ecology with a focus on Latin American environmental conflicts, particularly in Chile, and European Union relations.

Her educational background includes PhD studies in political ecology at the University of Copenhagen (2020-present) under supervisors Mattias Borg Rasmussen and Christian Lund. She completed fieldwork in Chile for both doctoral (2021-2022) and Master's research (2018), with academic exchanges at the University of Chile (2017) and University of Buenos Aires (2015).

Dr. Cariola's research centers on the intersection of (green) finance, urban studies, energy politics, and territorial conflicts in Latin America. Her current projects examine the politics of law, fire and finance in Valparaíso's urban periphery and wind energy development in Wallmapu (Mapuche territory). She approaches these topics through critical geography and political ecology frameworks, emphasizing how financial circuits shape environmental conflicts.

Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on renewable energy transitions in Chile, particularly examining wind power development and lithium mining through lenses of spatial justice, indigenous rights, and governance. The research demonstrates how 'green' energy projects often reproduce patterns of conflict and inequality despite their environmental promises.

• Funding from Carlsbergs Mindelegat for ethnographic documentary on land and law in Wallmapu

Dr. Cariola teaches the MSc course Interdisciplinary Field Research and supervises master's theses at the University of Copenhagen. Her professional experience includes coordination roles at the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (2019-2020) and Radio Migrante in Chile (2019), demonstrating her commitment to community-engaged research.

She is fluent in Danish, English, and Spanish, facilitating her transnational research across Latin America and Europe.