Dr Natalia Buitron, a Fellow of Jesus College specialising in political subjectivities, indigeneity, and development is the first to be appointed to this endowed teaching post.

Speaking about Natalia's appointment, Head of Department, Professor Sian Lazar, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Dr Natalia Buitron as our new Assistant Professor of the Anthropology of Amazonia. Her expertise will extend our world-leading research and teaching of a region that has been so important to our discipline. We are very excited to see where she takes the anthropological study of this region in the future.”

Speaking about taking up this new post, Dr Natalia Buitron said:

“The Department is a global centre for research and teaching in Anthropology and I am thrilled to join its intellectual community. I look forward to learning from colleagues and students about the great questions of social institutions, political life, and human history. In my research, I’ll carry on the long-standing tradition of Amazonianist scholarship at the department, and at the moment I am developing a new project on indigenous sovereignties."

"I’m excited to start teaching this term and discover how teaching at Cambridge will fine-tune my long-term interests in education, indigenous politics and the social imagination. Amazonia is at the centre of crucial debates concerning the ecological crisis and the future of politics. My aim is to foster expansive, inclusive conversations about the region with students and colleagues across the University and beyond.”

This new lectureship was made possible thanks to a generous endowment by alumna Jessica Sainsbury, who was inspired by passionate teaching as an undergraduate at Cambridge and by her involvement with groups working to protect the rights of indigenous peoples. 

Jessica Sainsbury and her husband Professor Peter Frankopan are alumni of the University of Cambridge, where they met as undergraduates at Jesus College. They are long-standing benefactors of the University and Jesus College. A hotelier and philanthropist, Jessica is a member of the Campaign Board of the University’s Dear World, Yours Cambridge campaign which has raised over £2 billion to date.