Valentina Bonifacio

Valentina Bonifacio is a Full Professor in the Department of Humanities at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, specializing in Demoethnoanthropological disciplines (SDEA-01/A). Based at the Malcanton Marcorà campus, she maintains active teaching duties with office hours on Fridays (9:00-11:30 by appointment) and communicates via valentina.bonifacio@unive.it.

Her research centers on Indigenous communities in the Paraguayan Chaco, examining intersections of colonial history, extractive industries (particularly tannin production), and cultural identity through ethnographic and audiovisual methodologies. Key themes include indigenous labor systems, missionary-industrial complexes, cattle domestication as colonial tool, and visual representation in corporate enclaves. She conducts fieldwork primarily in Latin America with fluency in Spanish (advanced), English (advanced), and Guarani (intermediate spoken).

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2022-2025) reveals consistent focus on Paraguayan Maskoy communities, emphasizing historical agency in extractive economies, gendered labor dynamics, and post-colonial resilience. Her work bridges cultural anthropology with political ecology, frequently analyzing how indigenous groups navigate corporate enclaves and missionary projects through adaptive strategies.

Professor Bonifacio serves on editorial boards for Visual Anthropology (since 2022) and Lagoonscapes (since 2022), and contributes to the 'Etnografie' book series (since 2017). She supervises multiple H2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions projects including MOTOBOOM (with Diego Villar), LANLOSS, and NAMELESS, focusing on Amazonian motorization impacts, Chaco deforestation experiences, and rubber boom narratives.