Robyn Yzelman

Robyn Yzelman is a doctoral student researching the afterlives of extractivism in the Bolivian Amazon, and how they have transformed ecologies, land relations, and identity among Indigenous and campesino communities. Her second project, rooted in apprenticeship with Andean-Amazonian traditional healers in Bolivia, examines the impacts of emerging ecological crises on embodied relationalities of healing. Previously, her undergraduate research on migrant domestic workers in Singapore explored the radical possibilities of love and care relations under capitalist structures.

Prior to starting her doctoral studies, Robyn worked as an environmental policymaker in Singapore, and in the corporate law sector in Washington, DC. She is also committed to social and community activism, having served as a volunteer domestic violence advocate, Title IX activist, and youth political organizer.

Robyn graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College in 2015 with an A.B. in Political Science and Women's Studies, along with several honors for academic and personal distinction. Her research has been supported by the American Anthropological Association Robert Lemelson Fellowship (2023), the Washington University in St. Louis Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity Graduate Fellowship (2023-24), and the Ann Cornelisen Postgraduate Fellowship (2017-18).