NE (Nina) Swen, MA

Biography

Nina Swen is a Ph.D. researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS). She holds a Master's degree in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and an Advanced Master's in International Development from Radboud University. Specializing in environmental anthropology, Nina's research focuses on knowledge, technologies, and human-environmental relations in contexts of pollution and extractivism, with a regional focus on the Amazon.

Her current Ph.D. research centers on indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon affected by contamination from oil extraction. Nina explores how these communities engage with regulatory science, environmental monitoring of pollution, and the production of their own evidence to challenge epistemic and environmental injustices and established knowledge hierarchies. She delves into questions surrounding what constitutes "knowledge," "evidence," and "expertise" in toxic landscapes, shedding light on the complexities of environmental governance and indigenous responses to environmental challenges.

Her ongoing Ph.D. research is carried out in close collaboration with PUINAMUDT, a platform that integrates communities of four indigenous federations affected by oil extraction in the Peruvian Amazon. Nina has supported their territorial monitoring efforts, employing GPS, smartphones and drones to document and report oil spills.