معرفی
Sebastián Gil-Riaño serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Sociology of Science within the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts & Sciences. His academic profile centers on critical examinations of scientific knowledge production through intersecting lenses of race, gender, and global power dynamics, with particular emphasis on Latin American and Global South contexts.
His research portfolio spans the history of human sciences, global science histories, and Science-Technology-Medicine (STM) studies in modern Latin America. Key investigations include racial science's entanglement with Cold War development projects, UNESCO's anti-racist initiatives, and the transnational circulation of eugenic ideas. Methodologically, Gil-Riaño employs comparative and transnational frameworks to analyze how scientific concepts of race were constructed, contested, and repurposed across geopolitical boundaries.
Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals dominant thematic clusters: UNESCO's role in reshaping race science during decolonization (2016-2023), Latin American eugenics within Cold War development frameworks (2021-2022), and critical examinations of antiracist science production (2017-2024). His work consistently foregrounds how scientific racial classifications intersected with economic development agendas, migration policies, and postcolonial identity formation, particularly through case studies from Peru, Brazil, and Portuguese-speaking Africa.
While no scientific awards are documented in available sources, Gil-Riaño actively contributes to academic discourse through editorial work and roundtable discussions on demographic data collection methodologies. His research demonstrates sustained engagement with major historical questions regarding science's role in constructing racial hierarchies and potential pathways toward antiracist knowledge production.
