Marco Ammatelli

MALAS
Latin American Studies and Public Health

Marco is a  MALAS student working across disciplines in Public Health (Community Health) and Latin American Studies (Environmental Governance and Resilience). While traveling in South America with support of the Bonderman Fellowship, he began to understand that determinants of health cannot be disentangled from the agricultural landscapes at their center. Working with individuals in small communities across the Andes taught him that co-creation, food sovereignty, and regenerative farming practices are integral to addressing the conundrums of our shared future, both for humans and non-humans.   

His research is focused on  the intersection of regenerative food systems, water governance, and how each informs health across scales, from individual to planetary. Using community-centered research practices, he seeks to situate issues of equity, health, and environmental justice within both scientific and traditional knowledge frameworks.    

He plans to conduct research among headwater-dependent communities in the Ecuadorian Andes, mapping hydro social territories and helping to define strategies for adaption to environmental change.    

"My desire to study Quechua is simple: to meet people where they are.  Communicating in a language native to the Andes enables me to honor indigenous ways of knowing and being while simultaneously becoming a better steward of the knowledge entrusted to me. In this way, learning Quechua serves as a radical medium for reciprocity.  These motivations are fundamental to my research and education, which seeks to elevate the voices and needs of rural, agrarian communities across the Andes.”